o.
The pressure normal, he divested himself of the suit and made a thorough
examination of the vessel. He then signaled Loring to follow him, and
soon both ships were over Kondal, so high as to be invisible from the
ground. Plunging the vessel like a bullet towards the grove in which he
had left the Kondalian airship, he slowed abruptly just in time to make
a safe landing. As he stepped out upon Osnomian soil, Loring landed the
Earthly ship hardly less skillfully.

"This saves us a lot of trouble, Loring. This is undoubtedly one of the
finest space-ships of the Universe, and just about ready for anything."

"How did they get to it?"

"One of the screen generators apparently weakened a trifle, probably
from weeks of continuous use. That let some of the rays come through;
everything got hot, and the crew had to jump or roast. Nothing is hurt,
though, as the ship was thrown up and out of range before the arenak
melted at all. The copper repellers are gone, of course, and most of the
bars that were in use are melted down, but there was enough of the main
bar left to drive the ship and we can replace the melted stuff easily
enough. Nothing else was hurt, as there's absolutely nothing in the
structure of these vessels that can be burned. Even the insulation in
the coils and generators has a melting-point higher than that of
porcelain. And not all the copper was melted, either. Some of these
storerooms are lined with two feet of insulation and are piled full of
bars and explosive ammunition."

"What was the smoke we saw, then?"

"That was their food-supply. It's cooked to an ash, and their water was
all boiled away through the safety-valves. Those rays certainly can put
out a lot of heat in a second or two!"

"Can the two of us put on those copper repeller-bands? This ship must be
seventy-five feet in diameter."

"Yes, it's a lot bigger than the _Skylark_ was. It's one of their latest
models, or it wouldn't have been on the front line. As to banding on the
repellers--that's easy. That airship is half full of metal-working
machinery that can do everything but talk. I know how to use most of it,
from seeing it in use, and we can figure out the rest."

In that unfrequented spot there was little danger of detection from the
air. And none whatsoever of detection from the ground--of ground-travel
upon Osnome there is none. Nevertheless, the two men camouflaged the
vessels so that they were visible only to keen and direct sc