this--"

The boy seemed dazed at sight of the bright flask. Then, with a single
swift motion, he snatched it out of Eric's hand, and bent to conceal it
below his instrument panel.

"Sure, old boy. I'd send you to heaven for that, if you'd give me the
micrometer readings to set the ray with. But I tell you, this is
dangerous. I've got a sort of television attachment, for focusing the
ray. I can turn that on Venus--I've been amusing myself, watching the
life there, already. Terrible place. Savage. I can pick a place on high
land to set you down. But I can't be responsible for what happens
afterward."

"Simple, primitive life is what we're looking for. And now what do I owe
you--"

"Oh, that's all right. Between friends. Provided that stuff's genuine!
Walk in and lie down on the crystal block. Hands at your sides. Don't
move."

The little door had swung open again, and Eric led Nada through. They
stepped into a little cell, completely surrounded with mirrors and vast
prisms and lenses and electron tubes. In the center was a slab of
transparent crystal, eight feet square and two inches thick, with an
intricate mass of machinery below it.

Eric helped Nada to a place on the crystal, lay down at her side.

"I think the Express Ray is focused just at the surface of the crystal,
from below," he said. "It dissolves our substance, to be transmitted by
the beam. It would look as if we were melting into the crystal."

"Ready," called the youth. "Think I've got it for you. Sort of a high
island in the jungle. Nothing bad in sight now. But, I say--how're you
coming back? I haven't got time to watch you."

"Go ahead. We aren't coming back."

"Gee! What is it? Elopement? I thought you were married already. Or is
it business difficulties? The Bears did make an awful raid last night.
But you better let me set you down in Hong Kong."

A bell jangled. "So long," the youth called.

Nada and Eric felt themselves enveloped in fire. Sheets of white flame
seemed to lap up about them from the crystal block. Suddenly there was a
sharp tingling sensation where they touched the polished surface. Then
blackness, blankness.

* * * * *

The next thing they knew, the fires were gone from about them. They were
lying in something extremely soft and fluid; and warm rain was beating
in their faces. Eric sat up, found himself in a mud-puddle. Beside him
was Nada, opening her eyes and struggling up, her brigh