great building.

Even this caused him no great concern; he was as familiar with it as
he would have been had he constructed it. For some moments he was busy
with numerous dials and levers; then the release of the germs was
stopped.

* * * * *

Parkinson spent several minutes in examining the contents of the
tower, his Earthly mind lost in wonder at the strange things his
Venerian knowledge revealed to him. Then he entered the sphere again,
and sank into the meteor.

As he moved toward the room that held the Venerian, his mind was busy
with conjectures as to what he would do with his prisoner. It was
necessary for the bacteriologist to reach the mainland as quickly as
possible, and make use of his knowledge of the cure for the Gray
Plague. He didn't want to kill the man; he couldn't free him; yet if
he left him strapped to the chair, he'd surely die of starvation.

Still undecided, he thrust open the door. With a startled gasp he
stopped short. Somehow the Venerian had freed himself; at that moment
he leaped toward Parkinson.

Instinctively the bacteriologist flung up his hand in a defensive
attitude. The onrushing Venerian caught Parkinson's out-thrust fist in
the pit of his stomach, and doubled up in pain. While he was thus
defenseless, Parkinson placed a well-directed blow on the side of the
Venerian's jaw, a blow carrying every ounce of his strength.

So great was the force of the punch, that it lifted the man from Venus
and cast him headlong upon the floor. His head landed with a sickening
thud. Unmoving, he lay where he had fallen.

Parkinson knelt over him for a moment, then arose. Without question,
the man was dead. The Venerian had solved the bacteriologist's last
problem; he was free to return to the United States with his means of
saving mankind.

* * * * *

Drawing the little metal cylinder from his pocket, he burned the body
of the Venerian leader to a heap of ashes, ridding the world of the
last invader. Then he turned and entered the glass-lined operating
room.

Following the dictates of his Venerian knowledge, he crossed to one of
the walls, and drew therefrom a flat, glass vessel, somewhat like a
petri dish. This contained bacteria that were harmless in themselves,
and were hostile to those of the Gray Plague. These germs, brought
from Venus, were the only cure for the terrible disease.[1]

[Footnote 1: The work of the English