able which had
so nearly done for us.

At this point my natural curiosity as a scientist made me desire greatly
to ask a thousand questions about the planet itself, with its bubbling
chemical seas and its erratic orbit, and I did ask a few things. The
answers I received confirmed the theory I had already formed that Orcon
did not revolve regularly, but had days and nights which might last
anywhere from a few hours to a month. I was told--what I had already
guessed--that the bubbling fluid which composed the seas changed the
orbit of the planet as the nature of the fluid's chemical elements
changed.

Also I was told flatly and calmly, as though there were nothing at all
remarkable about the fact, that Leider had penetrated so deeply into the
chemical secrets of Orcon that he was able to control the coming of day
and night. Finally I was told that the planet had a hot, moist climate
instead of the frigid one to be expected when any sun was so remote,
because of the continued warmth-giving chemical action of its seas.

* * * * *

I could have gone on seeking information for hours. Captain Crane,
however, showed impatience at even the few questions I did ask, and I
knew that she was justified. It was my duty to think about the position
we were in and the task we had in hand.

I asked Hargrib sharply what was to be expected from Leider now that his
cable party against us had failed. And he told me.

The sum of it was that Leider was working eagerly to complete his
preparations for the attack on Earth. Although it was he who had sent
word from headquarters that we were to be destroyed, he had not paused
to attend to the matter himself. Hargrib thought, however, that the
failure of the cable party might change this attitude, and expressed
the belief that Leider would interview us now before he put us out of
the way. He swore, and I believed, that he did not know when or how
Leider would come to us or have us brought to him. Also he did not know
when or how we would finally be exterminated.

I now asked a series of indirect questions which led me to believe that
neither Hargrib nor his master knew of the thing I had been conscious of
from the start--that we had aboard the ship an amount of high explosive
sufficient to do ghastly damage not only to this section of the coast
but to the whole planet of Orcon. I gathered, however, that Leider
suspected we were armed against him in