ts from all over Earth and Venus were
interested, and those of Earth came, for there was no time for the men
of Venus to arrive to inspect the results.

Chapter XVII

POWER OF MIND

It was night. The stars visible through the laboratory windows winked
violently in the disturbed air of the Heaviside layer, for the molecular
ray screen was still up.

The laboratory was dimly lighted now, all save the front of the room.
There, a mass of compact boxes were piled one on another, and
interconnected in various and indeterminate ways. And one table lay in a
brilliant path of illumination. Behind it stood Arcot. He was talking to
the dim white group of faces beyond the table, the scientists of Earth
assembled.

"I have explained our power. It is the power of all the universe--Cosmic
Power--which is necessarily vaster than all others combined.

"I cannot explain the control in the time I have at my disposal but the
mathematics of it, worked out in two months of constant effort, you can
follow from the printed work which will appear soon.

"The second thing, which some of you have seen before, has already been
partly explained. It is, in brief, artificially created matter. The two
important things to remember about it are that it _is_, that it _does
exist_, and that it exists _only where it is determined to exist by the
control there, and nowhere else_.

"These are all coordinated under the new mental relay control. Some of
you will doubt this last, but think of it under this light. Will,
thought, concentration--they are efforts, they require energy. Then they
can exert energy! That is the key to the whole thing.

"But now for the demonstration."

Arcot looked toward Morey, who stood off to one side. There was a heavy
thud as Morey pushed a small button. The relay had closed. Arcot's mind
was now connected with the controls.

A globe of cloudiness appeared. It increased in density, and was a
solid, opalescent sphere.

"There is a sphere, a foot in diameter, ten feet from me," droned Arcot.
The sphere was there. "It is moving to the left." The sphere moved to
the left at Arcot's thought. "It is rising." The sphere rose. "It is
changing to a disc two feet across." The sphere seemed to flow, and was
a disc two feet across as Arcot's toneless voice of concentration
continued.

"It is changing into a hand, like a human hand." The disc changed into a
human hand, the fingers slightly bent, the soft, white fingers