3769, sun 8482730, world 3. They have been investigating this system now
for nearly three centuries. It was close to 200 years ago that they
visited your world--two hundred years of your time."

"This is 2129--which makes it about the year 1929-30 that they floated
around here investigating. Why haven't they done anything?" Arcot asked
him.

"They waited for an auspicious time. They are afraid now, for recently
they visited your world, and were utterly amazed to find the
unbelievable progress your people have made. They intend to make an
immediate attack on all worlds known to be intelligently populated. They
had made the mistake of letting one race learn too much; they cannot
afford to let it happen again.

"There are only twenty-one inhabited worlds known, and their thousands
of scouts have already investigated nearly all the central mass of this
universe, and much of the outer rings. They have established a base in
this universe. Where I do not know. That, alone, was never mentioned in
the records. But of all peoples, they feared only your world.

"There is one race in the universe far older than yours, but they are a
sleeping people. Long ago their culture decayed. Still, now they are not
far from you, and perhaps it will be worth the few days needed to learn
more about them. We have their location and can take you there. Their
world circles a dead star--"

"Not any more," laughed Morey grimly. "That's another surprise for the
enemy. They had a little jog, and they certainly are wide awake now.
They are headed for big things, and they are going to do a lot."

"But how do you know these things? You have ships that can go from
planet to planet, I know, but the records of the enemy said you could
not leave the system of your sun. They alone knew that secret."

"Another surprise for them," said Morey. "We can--and we can move faster
than your ship, if not faster than they. The people of the dead star
have moved to a very live star--Sirius, the brightest in our heavens.
And they are as much alive now as their new sun. They can move faster
than light, also. We had a little misunderstanding a while back, when
their star passed close to ours. They came off second best, and we
haven't spoken to them since. But I think we can make valuable allies
there."

For all Morey's jocular manner, he realized the terrible import of this
announcement. A race which had been able to cross the vast gulf of
intergalactic space in th