he gravity-plates of my suit.
Then, four nights from now, if the watcher's seen no one arrive, Ban,
Friday and I return and lie in ambush round Tantril's ranch. Awaiting
Dr. Ku. When he comes, he'll surely leave his asteroid somewhere near.
And while he's at Tantril's, we capture the asteroid--and my promise
to the coordinated brains will be kept.

"Then--but that's enough for now; I am so tired. Ban, will you
please--some food--"

Wilson, who had been listening eagerly and, at the end, grinning in
prospect of action with the Hawk, darted off like a spark. A few
minutes later, after his third mouthful of food, Carse murmured:

"We'll use your ship to go to Eliot's lab in, Ban, but I think
you'll--have to--carry me--aboard. So sleepy. Wake me when we get
to--lab."

On this last word his sleep-denied body had its way, and at once he
was deep in the dreamless slumber of exhaustion.

While he slept, the others rapidly carried out his orders. Within two
hours Friday, in the ranch's air-car, had retrieved the cached suit.
Ban Wilson had manned and made ready his personal space-ship for the
trip to the laboratory, and Eliot Leithgow had jotted down a few
preliminary plans for the infra-red and ultra-violet instruments
which Carse would need in order to see the invisible asteroid of Dr.
Ku Sui.

CHAPTER II

_Three Figures in the Dawn_

The fourth night after the Hawk had met his friends at Ban Wilson's
was sunless and Jupiter-less, nor was there the slightest breath of
wind; and in the humid, dank jungle surrounding on three sides the
isuan ranch of the Venusian Lar Tantril the sounds of night-prowling
animals burst full and loud, making an almost continuous babel of
varied and savage noise.

In the midst of this dark inferno, Tantril's ranch was an island of
stillness. Within the high guarding fence, the long low buildings lay
quiet and were [illegible] brushed periodically by the light from the
watch-beacon high overhead as it swept its shaft over the jungle
smother and then around over the black glassy surface of the Great
Briney Lake, bordering the ranch enclosure on the fourth side. And,
vigilantly, the eyes of three Venusian guards followed the ray.

They stood on the three lookout towers which reared at equal intervals
up above the circumference of the ranch; and though the buildings
below seemed deserted, in reality wide-awake men were stationed at
posts within them, waiting for the clang of the al