* * * * *

Outside the apparently motionless sphere, a never-ending riot of color
surged swiftly and silently by, now swirling violently in great
sweeping arcs of blinding magnificence, now changing character and
driving down from dizzying heights as a dim-lit column of gray that
might have been a blast of steam from some huge inverted geyser of the
cosmos. Always there were the intermittent black bands that flashed
swiftly across the brightness, momentarily darkening the sphere and
then passing on into the limbo of this strange realm between planes.

Abruptly then, like the turning of a page in some gigantic book, the
swift-moving phantasmagoria swung back into the blackness of the
infinite and was gone. Before them stretched a landscape of rolling
hills and fertile valleys. Overhead, the skies were a deep blue,
almost violet, and twin suns shone down on the scene. The sphere
drifted along a few hundred feet from the surface.

"Urtraria!" the Wanderer breathed reverently. His white head was bowed
and his great hands clutched the small rail of the control board.

In a daze of conflicting emotions, Bert watched as this land of peace
and plenty slipped past beneath them. This, he knew, had been the home
of Wanderer. In what past age or at how great a distance it was from
his own world, he could only imagine. But that the big man who called
himself Wanderer loved this country there was not the slightest doubt.
It was a fetish with him, a past he was in duty bound to revisit time
and again, and to mourn over.

Smooth broad lakes, there were, and glistening streams that ran their
winding courses through well-kept and productive farmlands. And
scattered communities with orderly streets and spacious parks. Roads,
stretching endless ribbons of wide metallic surface across the
countryside. Long two-wheeled vehicles skimming over the roads with
speed so great the eye could scarcely follow them. Flapping-winged
ships of the air, flying high and low in all directions. A great city
of magnificent dome-topped buildings looming up suddenly at the
horizon.

The sphere proceeded swiftly toward the city. Once a great air liner,
flapping huge gossamerlike wings, drove directly toward them. Bert
cried out in alarm and ducked instinctively, but the ship passed
_through_ them and on its way. It was as if they did not exist in this
spherical vehicle of the dimensions.

* * * *