* * * * *

Captain Crane was staring first at Leider, then at me, and her cheeks
were gray and ghastly looking. Koto and LeConte were both sitting tight
in chairs beside our own, watching me rather than Leider. I looked over
the shelves, the whole complex apparatus of that incredible room, but
saw no weapon of any kind. And my hands were useless because _his_ were
so close to the damnable controls.

"But what becomes of Earth itself, after our peoples are gone?" I asked
presently.

Leider shrugged and his eyes twinkled behind the thick glasses.

"Herr Doktor, you are a brilliant man. Amongst the most brilliant, I
should say, of any who on the Earth have labored. Yet of science you
know less than a child. What should I do with Earth except to sit here
in my own room, and, with the anarcostic ray, reduce its solid structure
into stardust which will drift away into space like the smoke from one
tiny match? Pouf! like that."

I looked at the table, at Leider's wary hands. I knew that the man was
ready, even as he had said, to do away with Earth. I guessed that we
would die, too, when Earth was gone--probably here in this room. And it
seemed likely that the destruction would begin at a not distant moment,
for there was some quality of fanatical evil lurking even now in
Leider's face.

Then, however, I stiffened in my chair very suddenly indeed. If I could
find a way to get close to the box on the table without rousing Leider's
suspicion, the outlook might not be so black!

"Leider," I exclaimed all at once, and there was a vigor in my words,
"it's all very well for you to be saying these mighty things, but do you
know what? I don't believe you can draw the energy out of the human race
or disintegrate the Earth, either!"

* * * * *

I think if I had kicked him I could not have surprised him more. Which
was exactly what I had hoped to do.

"You--you do not _believe_?" he said, incredulously.

"No I don't!"

"Ach, Gott!" A black fury overcame him. Hideous fury. He was already
standing beside the table. Quaking from head to foot, he pointed
savagely at the box. "Get up and look into the reflector!" He choked and
his voice rose to a scream. "Get up! Stoop close to the reflector and
watch! Watch there, I say!"

The thing which had launched me on my course of action was the fact that
the picture-making box was not screwed to the t