days were more advanced than most of what we've seen of life
on this planet of Venus."

"I don't suppose those Ancients knew what they were missing."

"Maybe they were better off! At least they only got into trouble on
their own Earth instead of wandering off to other planets like a pack of
fools as we have!"

Toll and two of his men came toward them, carrying the ropes with which
they had earlier been bound.

"Sorry, but I must tie you up for the night," he said. For an instant
Gerry thought of making a break. If he could get away he might find some
way of rescuing the others. Then he decided against it. One of the
reptile men would be almost sure to bring him down with a gas-gun before
he got out of the circle of firelight, in spite of the greater strength
of his Earthly muscles. So he shrugged, and allowed the guards to tie
him up again. For quite a while he lay awake, hoping to hear the hum of
the _Viking's_ motors, but at last he fell asleep.

* * * * *

On the third day of their journey, the trail led upward, into a range of
bleak and rocky hills. A few mean huts were the only signs of human
habitation. Then, as they rounded a bend in the trail which at this
point clung to the face of a cliff, they saw the answer to a mystery
that had puzzled the civilized world for two years.

It was the wreck of the space-ship _Stardust_. She lay at the foot of a
cliff across the valley, her steel and duralite hull still gleaming
brightly through the thick green creepers that had grown up around it.
Even from this distance Gerry could see the hopelessly crumpled
rocket-tubes at the stern, and the gaping holes where plates had been
ripped away to make the submarine that had brought them out of the city
of Larr.

"So that was the end of the _Stardust_!" Gerry muttered. "I wonder what
happened to her crew!"

"We'll probably find out soon enough!" McTavish replied grimly. "I'll
bet all the gold in Savissa against an empty rocket-oil tin that we're
headed for the same fate right now."

"Poor devils--I suppose the Scaly Ones did get them. I never liked
Walter Lansing, as you know, but I could have wished him better luck
than this!"

At last they crossed the hills and saw a broad valley before them. Dim
and snow-capped mountains notched the yellow sky on the far side of the
Valley. A river wound through the plain, and on the shore of the saffron
waters of a mighty lake they saw the gray wal