Mars at the time of proper conjunction. All very complicated. However
the beam must have worked prematurely. These monsters began to form in
the hydrogen chamber."

Several of the listeners looked at other listeners with unmistakable
doubt. Unruffled, Dr. Mildume went on, "Now, we can make certain rough
assumptions from the form and structure of these monsters. You will
notice that except for their appendages they are globularly formed.
Any engineer can tell you that the arch and hemisphere sustain the
greatest weight for their mass.

"We may concede that they come from a planet of very strong gravity.
Their skin, for instance, is tough and rigid compared with ours. They
have difficulty staying rooted to earth--often a simple multipod
movement will send them bouncing to the top of the cage. There is one
other factor--the smaller of these creatures seems the more
dominant--suggesting that on their home planet smaller beings are more
agile and therefore better able to take care of themselves."

"There, you see?" interrupted Mr. Untz, slipping into a pause. "That's
all there is to it. So now let us please get down to business."

So they got down to business. And it was not easy business,
photographing these monsters. Keeping the cage wires out of focus
required a critical distance for each lens but whenever a camera came
too near a fibrilla would shoot forward--at the glass, no doubt--and
scare the wits out of the cameramen.

The shorter lenses got too much of the surrounding area into the
picture. The crew tried and tried. One technician muttered darkly that
the organization contract didn't cover this sort of thing. Mr. Untz
pleaded and cajoled and heckled and moved about and tried to keep
things going. Somehow, anyhow.

Eddie Tamoto, the chief cameraman, finally came up to him and said,
"It's no use, Max. These cages simply don't allow us to do anything.
Why don't we put them in the cages they use for jungle pictures?
They're big and camouflaged, and the mesh size is right."

"So maybe we'll have to do that," said Mr. Untz.

Dr. Mildume dipped his head. "I don't know. I'd like to see these
other cages first."

"Look," said Mr. Untz. "Don't worry about it. If they hold lions they
will hold your whatever-you-call-thems. I'll get the animal trainer,
Flaubert, to stand by. He practically talks to animals--except horses,
which is his hard luck."

The jungle cages were duly summoned and so was Etienne Flaubert of