t was obviously this thin sheet of unknown force
that was keeping the purple mists at bay, for fan-like antennae at the
top of each post spread a similar shimmering sheet that formed a ceiling
for the clear-aired area.

* * * * *

The three Earthlings were facing one of the side walls of the big
enclosures. The purple mists outside made it hard to see clearly for
any distance, but Blake had an impression that the surrounding terrain
was featured by the same barren, nearly desert bleakness that
characterized the interior of the enclosure, where scattered clumps of
dead, spiky black branches of shrub-like vegetation were the only sign
of plant life.

Just within the distant end wall at their right there was a low platform
surmounted by a wide arch some ten feet in height, both constructed of
silver-colored metal. There was nothing between them and the end wall to
their left, but they could see that the ground sloped sharply upward
from the barrier-sheet, and on the crest of the ridge a gigantic
cone-shaped structure of solid black could be seen dimly through the
intervening mists.

The cone-building seemed to be the source of the power that kept the
enclosure intact. Slender cables of black metal ran down the slope from
it into the clear-aired space, spreading out over the dusty gray-blue
ground to the base of each of the tall posts, with a heavier
copper-colored cable running on the silver arch. From within the
windowless interior of the cone there was audible a low hum as of
tremendous power being generated there.

"Gee, what a rummy joint this place is!" There was frank awe in the
gangster's voice as he at last broke the silence. "That guy with the
green net sure took us for one sweet ride. Mebbe we're on the Moon now,
or on Mars, huh?"

Blake shook his head. "No, we're completely out of our entire solar
system. Those twin purple suns up there prove that. We may even be in
another universe, or another dimension from our own. A piece of
apparatus that could whisk us up through fifty feet of earth and masonry
as that green net did obviously works in dimensions of which we've
never dreamed. The only thing we're sure of is that we were brought to
this purple world deliberately and intentionally by an intelligent being
of some kind, scooped up like tadpoles from a mud-puddle and dumped here
in this elaborate enclosure It had already prepared for us."

* * * *