s
impetuous friend.

"Yes, and I'm going to be timid like a mice," Seaton returned as the
_Skylark_ dropped rapidly toward a lagoon near the edge of the island.

"You ought to put that in a gag book, Dick," Dorothy chuckled. "You
forget all about being timid until an hour afterwards."

"Watch me, Red-top! If they even point a finger at us, I'm going to run
a million miles a minute."

No hostile demonstration was made as they dropped lower and lower,
however, and Seaton, with one hand upon the switch actuating the zone of
force, slowly lowered the vessel down past the reflectors and to the
surface of the water. Through the visiplate he saw the crowd of people
coming toward them--some swimming in the lagoon, some walking along
narrow runways. They seemed to be of all sizes, and unarmed.

"I believe they're perfectly peaceable, and just curious, Mart. I've
already got the repellers on close range--believe I'll cut them off
altogether."

"How about the ray-screens?"

"All three full out. They don't interfere with anything solid, though,
and won't hurt anything. They'll stop any ray attack and this arenak
hull will stop anything else we are apt to get there. Watch this board,
will you, and I'll see if I can't negotiate with them."

Seaton opened the door. As he did so, a number of the smaller beings
dived headlong into the water, and a submarine rose quietly to the
surface less than fifty feet away with a peculiar tubular weapon and a
huge ray-generator trained upon the _Skylark_. Seaton stood motionless,
his right hand raised in the universal sign of peace, his left holding
at his hip an automatic pistol charged with X-plosive shells--while
Crane, at the controls, had the Fenachrone super-generator in line, and
his hand lay upon the switch, whose closing would volatilize the
submarine and cut an incandescent path of destruction through the city
lengthwise.

* * * * *

After a moment of inaction, a hatch opened, a man stepped out upon the
deck of the submarine, and the two tried to converse, but with no
success. Seaton then brought out the mechanical educator, held it up for
the other's inspection, and waved an invitation to come aboard.
Instantly the other dived, and came to the surface immediately below
Seaton, who assisted him into the _Skylark_. Tall and heavy as Seaton
was, the stranger was half a head taller and almost twice as heavy. His
thick skin was of the characteristic