lashing his credentials, he dove down, and into the first
shielded room. Here precious seconds were wasted while a check was made
of the credentials the man carried, then he was sent through to the
Council Room. And he, too, stood on that exact spot where the other
scout, but a few weeks before, had stood--and vanished. Waiting, it
seemed, were four councilors and the new Sthanto, Thalt.

"What news, Scout?" asked the Sthanto.

"They have arrived in the Universe to Venone, and gone to the planet
Venone. They were on the planet when I left. None of our scouts were
able to approach the place, as there were innumerable Venonian watchers
who would have recognized our deeper skin-color, and destroyed us. Two
scouts were rayed, though the Galactians did not see this. Finally we
captured two Venonians who had seen it, and attempted to force the
information we needed from them. A young man and his chosen mate.

"The man would tell nothing, and we were hurried. So we turned to the
girl. These accursed Venonians are courageous for all their pacifism. We
were hurried, and yet it was long before we forced her to tell what we
needed to know so vitally. She had been one of the notetakers for the
Venonian government. We got most of their conversation, but she died of
burns before she finished.

"The Galactians know nothing of the twin-ray beyond its action, and that
it is an electro-magnetic phenomenon, though they have been able to
distort it by using a sheet of pure energy. But their walls are
impregnable to it, and their power of creating matter from the pure
energy of space, as we saw from a distance, would enable them to easily
defeat it, were it not that the twin-ray passes through matter without
harming it. Any ray which will destroy matter of the natural electrical
types, will be stopped.

"The girl was damnably clever, for she gave us only the things we
already knew, and but few new facts; knowing that she would inevitably
die soon, she talked--but it was empty talk. The one thing of import we
have learned is that they burn no fuel, use no fuel of any sort but in
some inconceivable manner get their energy from the radiations of the
suns of space. This could not be great--but we know she told the truth,
and we know their power is great. She told the truth, for we could
determine when she lied, by mental action, of course.

"But more we could not learn. The man died without telling anything,
merely cursing. He knew nothin