dy else reading that brain--hid some of the
stuff I wanted most, and camouflaged the ship so that I'm fairly sure
that it's there yet. I decided then to make this trip."

"I see." Loring's mind was grappling with these new and strange facts.
"That news is staggering, Doctor. Think of it. Everybody thinks our own
world is everything there is!"

"Our world is simply a grain of dust in the Universe. Most people know
it, academically, but very few ever give the fact any actual
consideration. But now that you've had a little time to get used to the
idea of there being other worlds, and some of them as far ahead of us in
science as we are ahead of the monkeys, what do you think of it?"

"I agree with you, that we've got their stuff," said Loring. "However,
it occurs to me as a possibility that they may have so much stuff that
we won't be able to make the approach. However, if the Osnomian fittings
we're going to get are as good as you say they are, I think that two
such men as you and I can get at least a lunch while any other crew, no
matter who they are, are getting a square meal."

"I like your style, Loring. You and I will have the world eating out of
our hands shortly after we get back. As far as actual procedure over
there is concerned, of course, I haven't made any definite plans. We'll
have to size up the situation after we get there before we can know
exactly what we'll have to do. However, we are not coming back
empty-handed."

"You said something, Chief!" and the two men, so startlingly unlike
physically, but so alike inwardly, shook hands in token of their mutual
dedication to a single purpose.

* * * * *

Loring was then instructed in the simple navigation of the ship of
space, and thereafter the two men took their regular shifts at the
controls. In due time they approached Osnome, and DuQuesne studied the
planet carefully through a telescope before he ventured down into the
atmosphere.

"This half of it used to be Mardonale. I suppose it's all Kondal now.
No, there's a war on down there yet--at least, there's a disturbance of
some kind, and on this planet that means war."

"What are you looking for, exactly?" asked Loring, who was also
examining the terrain with a telescope.

"They've got some spherical space-ships, like Seaton's. I know they had
one, and they've probably built more of them since that time. Their
airships can't touch us, but those ball-shaped cruisers w