as he learned that the stranger
was one of the navigating engineers, and as such, had no detailed
knowledge of the matters of prime importance to the inquisitor. He did
have a complete knowledge of the marvelous Fenachrone propulsion system,
however, and this DuQuesne carefully transferred to his own brain. He
then rapidly explored other regions of that fearsome organ of thought.

As the gigantic and inhuman brain was spread before them, DuQuesne and
Loring read not only the language, customs, and culture of the
Fenachrone, but all their plans for the future, as well as the events of
the past. Plainly in his mind they perceived how he had been cast adrift
in the emptiness of the void. They saw the Fenachrone cruiser lying in
wait for the two globular vessels. Looking through an extraordinarily
powerful telescope with the eyes of their prisoner, they saw them
approach, all unsuspecting. DuQuesne recognized all five persons in the
_Skylark_ and Dunark and Sitar in the Kondal; such was that unearthly
optical instrument and so clear was the impression upon the mind before
him. They saw the attack and the battle. They saw the _Skylark_ throw
off her zone of force and attack; saw this one survivor standing
directly in line with a huge projector-spring, and saw the spring
severed by the zone. The free end, under its thousands of pounds of
tension, had struck the being upon the side of the head, and the force
of the blow, only partially blocked by the heavy helmet, had hurled him
out through the yawning gap in the wall and hundreds of miles out into
space.

Suddenly the clear view of the brain of the Fenachrone became blurred
and meaningless and the flow of knowledge ceased--the prisoner had
regained consciousness and was trying with all his gigantic strength to
break from those intangible bonds that held him. So powerful were the
forces upon him, however, that only a few twitching muscles gave
evidence that he was struggling at all. Glancing about him he recognized
the attractors and repellers bearing upon him, ceased his efforts to
escape, and hurled the full power of his baleful gaze into the black
eyes so close to his own. But DuQuesne's mind, always under perfect
control and now amply reenforced by a considerable proportion of the
stranger's own knowledge and power, did not waver under the force of
even that hypnotic glare.

"It is useless, as you observe," he said coldly, in the stranger's own
tongue, and sneered. "You