rane and their families, the
directors and employees of their plants, the banks that by any
possibility may harbor their notes or solutions--in short, every person
and everything standing between me and a monopoly of 'X'--all shall
disappear."

"That is a terrible program, Doctor. Wouldn't the late Perkins' plan of
an abduction, such as I have in mind, be better, safer and quicker?"

"Yes--except for the fact that it will not work. I've talked until I'm
blue in the face--I've proved to you over and over that you can't abduct
her now without first killing him, and that you can't even touch him. My
plan is the only one that will work. Seaton isn't the only one who
learned anything--I learned a lot myself. I learned one thing in
particular. Only four other inhabitants of either Earth or Osnome ever
had even an inkling of it, and they died, with their brains
disintegrated beyond reading. That thing is my ace in the hole. I'm
going after it. When I get it, and not until then, will I be ready to
take the offensive."

"You intend starting open war upon your return?"

"The war started when I tried to pick off the women with my attractor.
That is why I am leaving at midnight. He always goes to bed at
eleven-thirty, and I will be out of range of his object-compass before
he wakes up. Seaton and I understand each other perfectly. We both know
that the next time we meet one of us is going to be resolved into his
component atoms, perhaps into electrons. He doesn't know that he's going
to be the one, but I do. My final word to you is to lay off--if you
don't, you and your 'competent authorities' are going to learn a lot."

"You do not care to inform me more fully as to your destination or your
plans?"

"I do not. Goodbye."

CHAPTER II

Dunark Visits Earth

Martin Crane reclined in a massive chair, the fingers of his right hand
lightly touching those of his left, listening attentively. Richard
Seaton strode up and down the room before his friend, his unruly brown
hair on end, speaking savagely between teeth clenched upon the stem of
his reeking, battered briar, brandishing a sheaf of papers.

"Mart, we're stuck--stopped dead. If my head wasn't made of solid blue
mush I'd have had a way figured out of this thing before now, but I
can't. With that zone of force the Skylark would have everything
imaginable--without it, we're exactly where we were before. That zone is
immense, man--terrific--its possibilities are unth