uer.

Then Partridge, a little in the lead as they made their way up a steep
slope, heard Jim suddenly go sprawling; heard him gasp:

"It's got me!"

* * * * *

Turning, he saw his partner rolling and threshing violently on the
ground, and now and then lashing out at the empty air with his fists.
Without a moment's hesitation he jumped from his position
above--jumped square and hard into the space which Jim's invisible
assailant should be occupying. With a great thud he crashed into some
unseen body in the air, and went down, the breath knocked out of him.
As he got to his knees an odor like that of cloves came to his
nostrils, and something caught him around the neck and began
constricting. Frantically he tried to tear himself loose, but the
harder he struggled the more strangling became the grip on his neck;
and at last, faint from the growing odor and the lack of air, his
efforts dwindled into a spasmodic tightening and relaxing of the
muscles.

Then, for a moment, the hold on his neck must have loosened, for he
found himself able to breathe a little. Turning, he saw Jim at his
side, apparently similarly held.

"If I could only--see it!" Clee managed to get out. Jim's spasmodic,
bitter answer came a moment later.

"Being invisible--tremendous advantage!" he gasped.

In desperation the two men again began to fight against the clutches
that were holding them, and this time the grip about their necks
unexpectedly loosened--to bring to their noses the odor of cloves
overpowering in strength. And that was all they knew before they
lapsed into a black and bottomless void....

* * * * *

Through the lifting haze of returning consciousness Clee felt a
command to get up. As he automatically complied he saw that Jim was
doing likewise. Once on his feet he felt another impulse to go to the
cherry-crystal sphere, visible in the distance; but his legs were
weak, and neither he nor Jim could walk very well until out of the
nothingness around them came something of invisible bulk to lend them
support.

Slowly, carefully, straight for the waiting globe the two men were
conducted; and in his state of half-consciousness Clee wondered at the
impotence of his will to make his body offer resistance. They passed
right by their tent and up the ramp to the inside of the strange
sphere.

Clee's impressions were blurred and dull, but he noticed that they
were in a