orce of more than half a ton! No wonder
enormous strength had been developed! Such things as a man might carry
with him, perhaps a ray pistol, would weigh half a ton; his money would
weigh near to a hundred pounds!

But--there were no guns on this world. A man could throw a stone perhaps
a short distance, but when a gravitational acceleration of more than a
half a mile per second acted on it, and it was hurled through an
atmosphere dense as water--what chance was there for a long range?

But these little men of enormous strength did not know other schemes of
existence, save in the abstract, and as things of comical peculiarity.
To them life on a planet like Earth was as life to a terrestrian on a
planetoid such as Ceres, Juno or Eros would have seemed. Even on
Thettsost, the satellite planet of Thett, life was strange, and they
used lux roofs over their cities, though their weight there was four
tons!

As the scout swam through the dense atmosphere of his world toward the
entrance way to the building, guards stopped him, and examined his
credentials. Then he was led through long halls, and down a shaft ten
stories below the planet's surface, to where a great table occupied a
part of a low ceilinged, wide room. This room was shielded, interference
screens of all known kinds lined the hollow walls, no rays could reach
through it to the men within. The guard changed, and new men examined
the scout's credentials, and he was led still deeper into the bowels of
the planet. Once more the guard changed, and he entered a room guarded
not by single shields but by triple, and walled with six foot relux, and
ceiled with the same strong material. But here, under the enormous
gravity, even its great strength required aid in the form of pillars.

A giant of his race sat before a low table. The table ran half the
length of the room, and beside it sat four other men. But there were
places for more than two dozen.

"A scout from the colony? What news?" demanded the leader. His voice was
a growl, deep and throaty.

"Oh mighty Sthanto, I bring news of resistance. We waited too long, in
our explorations, and those men of World 3769-8482730-3 have learned too
much. We were wrong. They had found the secret of exceeding the speed of
light, and can travel through space fully as rapidly as we can, and now,
since by some means we cannot fathom, they have learned to combine both
our own system and theirs, they have one enormous engine of des