a
color at the lowest end of his visible spectrum. How the being
registered that color cannot be said; the inhabitants of Planet III
would have termed it red.

With trained reaction, the watcher activated the full signal. Instantly
there appeared before his eyes a vision of a scene. There was the
interior of the major station on Planet I. It was non-functioning, and
there were two strange creatures turning now to look directly at him.
They were bipeds with two armlike extensions, lumpy objects, clad in
bulky white folds. They wore cumbersome helmets and he could see two
eyes shielded beneath thick transparencies over the face.

One of these creatures raised his arm and there was a puff of steam.
Then the vision flashed off, but not before the trained watcher had
activated the crash mechanism.

If the watcher had been closer in space to the station, the destruction
would have come quicker. Unfortunately for him, the speed of light and
radio impulses is limited, so that it was several minutes before the
destruction impulse reached Planet I.

A short while later, after the guiding beings had digested the news,
preparations were made for a vessel to go sunward to investigate--and
remove--the interference.

* * * * *

Burl twisted on his heel sharply as he whirled around to look at the
flash of red. Boulton drew his hand weapon, aimed and fired.

There was a jet of steam as the compressed air blasted the dart from the
gun. The glowing globe was pierced, there was a small explosion, and
then the globe and its pedestal vanished.

"What was that?" cried Burl.

Boulton holstered his gun. "A signal of some kind--a warning probably.
My guess is that it was an alarm tipping off the remote control masters
of this place that it was out of commission. Help me with the photo
stuff; I think we'd better get out of here quick!"

Without wasting more time, the two men snapped the scene as fast as the
shutters would click. Then they picked up the cameras, grabbed their
umbrellas and ran for the break in the wall.

Just as they made their first flying leaps toward the shielded rocket
plane, the globes within the Sun-tap station started to go off. One
after another, like a chain reaction, they blew up, and within seconds
the interior of the walled station was a turmoil of falling metals,
beams, wires, and sharp transparent shards.

Haines and Ferrati were ready for take-off and puffs of smoke were