their whole hope lay in him! The thought of his
own impotence was maddening. He poured out the story of his experience
in the pyramid, as if the telling might give him relief.

Kreiss sat in silence, listening to it all. He broke in at last.

"Wait!" he ordered. "There are some questions I would have answered. You
said once that they found us--these devils that you tell of--because of
the trail that I left. That is true?"

"Yes," Chet agreed irritably, "but what of it? It's all over now."

"Possibly not," Herr Kreiss demurred; "quite possibly not. The fault, it
appears, was mine. Who shall say where the results of that fault shall
lead?

"And you say that these thinking creatures are devils, and that they
plan to sacrifice your good friends to strange gods; and still the fault
leads on." Herr Kreiss, to whom cause and effect were sure guides,
seemed meditating upon the strange workings of immutable laws.

"And you say that if you could reach the interior of your ship you might
perhaps be of help. Yes, it is so! And the ship is engulfed in a fluid
sea, but the sea is of gas. Now in that I am not to blame, and
yet--and--yet--they all tie in together at the last; yes!"

"What are you talking about?" demanded Chet Bullard harshly. "It's no
use to moralize on who is to blame. If you know anything to do, speak
up; if not--"

Herr Kreiss raised his spare frame erect. "I shall do better than that,"
he stated; "I shall act." And Chet stared curiously after, as the thin
figure clambered up on the rocks and vanished into the cave.

* * * * *

He forgot him then and turned to stare moodily across the enclosure that
had been the scene of their battle. Kreiss had done good work there; he
had scared the savages into a panic fear. Chet was seeing again the
scenes of that night when a faint explosion came from the rocks at his
side. He looked up to see Herr Kreiss stagger from the cave.

Eyebrows and lashes were gone; his hair was tinged short; but his thick
glasses had protected his eyes. He breathed deeply of the outside air as
he regarded the remnant of a bladder that once had held a sample of
green gas. Then, without a word of explanation, he turned again into the
cave where a thin trickle of smoke was issuing.

Ragged and torn, his clothes were held together by bits of vine. There
were longer ropes of the same material that made a sling on his
shoulders when he reappeared. And, tied in th