he interior of the sphere; and the green radiance vanished. At
the same moment, three heavy metal supports sprang from equi-distant
points in the sides of the car, and held the sphere in a balanced
position on the rounded top of the meteor.

There was a soft, grating sound on the opposite side of the car.
Quickly, Parkinson circled it--and stopped short in surprise.

* * * * *

Men were descending from an opening in the side of the sphere!
Parkinson had reasoned that since the meteor had come from the depths
of space, any being in its interior, unnatural as that seemed, would
have assumed a form quite different from the human. Of course,
conditions on Earth could be approximated on another planet. At any
rate, whatever the explanation, the sphere was emitting men!

They were men--but there was something queer about them. They were
very tall--seven feet or more--and very thin; and their skins were a
delicate, transparent white. They looked rather ghostly in their
tight-fitting white suits. It was not this that made them seem queer,
however: it was an indefinite something, a vague suggestion of
heartless inhumanity, of unearthliness, that was somehow repulsive and
loathsome.

There were three of them, all very similar in appearance and bearing.
Their surprise at the sight of Parkinson, if anything, was greater
than the start their appearance had given him. He, at least, had
expected to see beings of some sort, while the three had been taken
completely by surprise.

For a moment they surveyed him with staring, cold-blue eyes. Then
Parkinson extended his hand, and as cordially as he could, exclaimed:

"Hello! Welcome to Earth!"

The visitors from space ignored his advances and continued staring at
him. Their attitude at first was quizzical, speculative, but slowly a
hostile expression crept into their eyes.

Suddenly, with what seemed like common consent, they faced each other,
and conversed in low tones in some unintelligible tongue. For almost a
minute they talked, while Parkinson watched them in growing
apprehension.

Finally they seemed to have reached some definite conclusion; with one
accord they turned and moved slowly toward the bacteriologist,
something distinctly menacing in their attitudes. The men from the
meteor were tall, but they were thin; Parkinson, too, was large, and
his six-foot length was covered with layers of solid muscle. As the
three advanced toward him, h