Grim swore. "The idiots. I told them not to start anything until I
returned. They'll be wiped out--they weren't ready."

Hilary nodded slowly. He thought of the strange heat while he had been
captive. There would be very few Earthmen left alive in Great New York
now.

They were at the foot of the ramp now. Just ahead gleamed an open
slide. A pale-blue light streamed out at them; in the oblong of the
interior they could see moving shapes, weirdly cut off, crossing their
field of vision; bright gleaming machines, segments of tremendous
tubes flooded with the pale-blue light. And over all was a constant
hum, a crackling, a whining of spinning parts. The laboratory!

CHAPTER IX

_The Weather Machine_

The two men flattened themselves against the wall so that they could
not be seen by a casual glance from the Mercutians inside the
laboratory.

"There are a lot of them," Grim whispered.

"Can't help it," Hilary answered grimly. "Have to take our chances."

"Of course," Grim said simply. There was no backing out.

Silently, with catlike tread, they inched their way forward flat
against the wall, keeping out of the blue flood of illumination. The
shapes, or rather segments of shapes within, moved about, engrossed in
the business at hand, unaware of the creeping death.

The Earthmen had reached their stations unobserved, one on either side
of the open slide. Very carefully Hilary protruded his head around the
vita-crystal, and ducked back almost instantly. But his quick eye had
taken in all the essential details in that momentary vision.

There were about a dozen Mercutians in the long laboratory, and each
had a sun-tube dangling from his belt, ready at hand. The laboratory
was crowded with apparatus, but what had drawn Hilary's attention was
a gigantic gleaming metallic sphere set up prominently in the center
of the room. Protruding from it at all angles were great quartz tubes,
through which a blue light pulsed and flamed. It was connected by huge
cables to a spark-bathed dynamo. Other cables writhed through the
translucent ceiling. The weather machine!

Hilary took a firmer grip on his automatic, nodded once to Grim. The
two Earthmen stepped simultaneously through the open door.

"Raise your paws high and keep them up." Hilary's voice cracked like a
whip through the busy confusion of the laboratory. The Mercutians,
scattered as they were, whirled around from their tasks to face two
deadly weapons he