nt Mariner_. It was going too slowly for him. The air had slowed
it down and heated it up, so Arcot hit it with the molecular ray again,
converting the heat back into velocity.

By the time they reached free space, Arcot had maneuvered the lump of
rock into an orbit around the planet.

"Tharlano," he thought at the Astronomer, "your planet now has a new
satellite!"

"So I perceive!" replied Tharlano. "Now that we are in space, can we use
the instrument you told me of?"

Arcot established the ship in an orbit twenty thousand miles from the
planet and led them back to the observatory, where Morey had already
trained the telectroscope on the planet below. There wasn't much to see;
the amplification showed only the rushing ground moving by so fast that
the image blurred.

He turned it to Sator. It filled the screen as they increased the power,
but all they could see was billowing clouds. Another poor subject.

Morey showed Tharlano, the Astronomer, how to use the controls, and he
began to sweep the sky with the instrument, greatly pleased with its
resolving ability and tremendous magnification.

The Military Leader of the Three pointed out that the Satorians still
had a weapon that was reported deadly, and they were in imminent danger
unless Arcot's inventions were applied at once. All the way back to
Nansal, they spent the time discussing the problem in the _Ancient
Mariner_'s Library.

It was finally agreed that the necessary plans and blueprints were to be
given to the Nansalians, who could start production at once. The biggest
problem was in the supply of lux and relux, which, because of their vast
energy-content, required the atomic converters of the _Ancient Mariner_
to make them. The Earthmen agreed to supply the power and the necessary
materials to begin operations.

When the ship landed, a meeting of the manufacturers was called. Fuller
distributed prints of the microfilmed plans for the equipment that he
had packed in the library, and the factory engineers worked from them to
build the necessary equipment.

The days that followed were busy days for Earthmen and Nansalians alike.

The Nansalians were fearful of the consequences of the weapon that the
Satorians were rumored to have. The results of their investigations
through their agents had, so far, resulted only in the death of the
secret service men. All that was known was exactly what the Satorians
wanted them to know; the instrument was new, and i