d forward Nanette tripped over the glass railing
around the square. Carruthers moved quickly. Yet his movements were
slow and ungainly as compared to the speed of the light ray. He saw
the figure of Nanette decrease in size before his eyes, heard the
muffled expression of alarm and fear in Danzig's voice; then the room
suddenly began to extend itself upward with the speed of a meteor.

What once had been walls and bare furniture resolved themselves into a
range of hills, then mountains. The twilight gloom of the room became
a dark void of empty space that seemed to rush past his ears like a
moaning wind.

He had the sensation of falling through infinite space as if he had
been propelled from the world and hurled out into the vastness of
interplanetary space. Something brushed against him--something soft
and fluttering. He grasped it like a drowning man would clutch a
straw. "Nanette!"

The name echoed and re-echoed through his mind yet never seemed to get
beyond his tightly clenched lips. He felt something cool close over
his hand. Instinctively he grasped it. Her hand. Together they clung
to each other as they felt themselves being hurled through endless
space.

The twilight changed swiftly to black night that rushed past the two
clinging figures and enveloped them in a wall of silence. Then out of
the mysterious fastness came the dull glow of what looked like a
distant planet. It grew and enlarged till it reached the size of a
silver dollar. Little pin-points of light soon began to appear on all
sides of it, very much like stars.

* * * * *

Carruthers attempted to reassure Nanette that all was well, and they
were out on the streets of the great metropolis. But even as he
wrenched his tightly locked lips apart he saw that the shining disc
far out into space was not what he had first thought it was--the
earth's moon.

He shook his head to clear it of the perplexing cobwebs. What was the
matter with his mind? He couldn't think or reason. All he knew was
that he had erred. This strange planet looming in the sky held
nothing familiar in markings nor in respect to its relations to the
stars beyond it.

While yet he groped in the darkness for something tangible, his mind
reverted to the girl at his side. She was clinging to him like a
frightened child. He could feel the pressure of her body against his
and it thrilled him immeasurably. No longer was he the cold,
calculating young m