tach the disks. Then when I am safely transferred to
the Earthling body I will have only to walk on through the enclosure to
the silver arch at the far end and leave Xollar forever.

"That silver arch is the inter-dimensional gate to your Earth. Its
operation is slightly different from that of the net. Where the net was
capable of reaching under the surface of your planet, a proceeding I
tried when two attempts upon the surface proved fruitless, the gate is
so adjusted that it will place its passenger exactly upon the surface of
your world. It requires no cooperation from this end. When I step under
the arch I merely close a black lever there. Inter-dimensional force
immediately catapults me to your Earth. Then the automatic mechanism of
the gate will within half a minute of my departure release an explosion
that will shatter everything within a radius of a mile here, and so
prevent the Council of Three from even guessing the method of my
escape."

"But what of the two of us whose bodies you do not need?" Blake
protested. "Can you not at least take them through the arch-gate with
you back to their home world?"

"Why should I do anything so foolish as that?" Zehru answered callously.
"They might easily be a menace to my first attempts to establish myself
upon your planet. Far better to leave them here in their present state
of paralysis to be safely destroyed in the explosion of the gate."

* * * * *

Zehru now thrust three of his tentacles into a vat of milky fluid, and
withdrew them coated with a silver sheen on the black flesh. The silver
glaze seemed to be an insulation against both the oxygen of the
enclosure and the paralyzing force of the overhead disk, for the
Xollarian promptly thrust the three silver-coated arms through the wall
and began handling the bodies of Mapes and Blake in a painstaking
process of examination.

Again Blake noted that the shimmering gold-flecked wall closed quickly
in and kept its surface unbroken no matter how often objects were thrust
through it.

Completely ignoring Helen, Zehru lifted first Mapes, then Blake, his
tentacles probing, fingering, exploring. There was enormous power in the
Xollarian's grotesque body. He lifted the men as though they were wooden
dolls, bringing them close to the shimmering wall to peer at them, then
setting them carefully down again on their feet under the disk. Blake
wondered idly why their stiff bodies did not topple