. You can't imagine the pressure to which
the rock three hundred feet down is subject to. There is the enormous
mass of atmosphere, the tremendous mass of rock above, and all forced
down by this gravitation. By the time you get down half a mile, the rock
is under such an inconceivably great pressure that it will flow like
mud. The rock there cannot break; it merely flows under pressure. Above,
the rock can break, instead of flowing. That is the zone of fracture. On
Earth the zone of fracture is ten miles deep. Here it must be of the
order of only five hundred feet! And the planetary blocks that made a
planet's surface float on the zone of flowage--they determine the zone
of fracture."

The gigantic ship had been sinking, and now, suddenly it gave a very
unexpected demonstration of Wade's words. It had landed, and Arcot shut
off the power. There was a roaring, and the giant ship trembled, rocked,
and rolled along a bit. Instantly Arcot drove it into the air.

"Whoa--can't do it. The ship will stand it, and won't bend under the
load--but the planet won't. We caused a Venone-quake. One of those
planetary blocks Wade was talking about slipped under the added strain."

Quickly Wade explained that all the planetary blocks were floating,
truly floating, and in equilibrium just as a boat must be. The added
load had been sufficiently great, so that, with an already extant
overload on this particular planetary block, this "boat" had sunk a bit
further into the flowage zone, till it was once more at rest and
balanced.

"They wish us to come out that they may see us, strangers and friends
from another Island," interrupted Zezdon Afthen.

"Tell them they'd have to scrape us up off the ground, if we attempted
it. We come from a world where we weigh about as much as a pebble here,"
said Wade, grinning at the thought of terrestrians trying to walk on
this world.

"Don't--tell them we'll be right out," said Arcot sharply. "All of us."

Morey and the others all stared at Arcot in amazement. It was utterly
impossible!

But Zezdon Afthen did as Arcot had asked. Almost immediately, another
Morey stepped out of the airlock wearing what was obviously a pressure
suit. Behind him came another Wade, Torlos, Stel Felso Theu, and indeed
all the members of their party save Arcot himself! The Galactians stared
in wonder--then comprehended and laughed together. Arcot had sent
artificial matter images of them all!

Their images stepped out,