rical form, with its precious content of semi-neutronium, was
following the secondary projector back toward the green system. Rovol
left his seat, discarded his armor, and signaled Seaton to do the same.

"I've got to hand it to you, ace--you sure are a blinding flash and a
deafening report!" Seaton exclaimed, writhing out of his insulating
suit. "I feel as though I'd been pulled half-way through a knot-hole and
riveted over on both ends! How big a lens did you make, anyway? Looked
as though it would hold a couple of liters; maybe three."

"Its contents are almost exactly three liters."

"Hm--m--m. Seven and a half million kilograms--say eight thousand tons.
_Some_ mass, I'd say, to put into a gallon jug. Of course, being inside
the faidon, it won't have any weight, but it'll have all its full quota
of inertia. That's why you're taking so long to bring it in, of course."

"Yes. The projector will now bring it here into the laboratory without
any further attention from us. The period of labor is about to end, and
tomorrow we shall find the lens awaiting us when we arrive to begin
work."

"How about cooling it off? It had a temperature of something like forty
million degree centigrade before you started working on it; and when you
got done with it, it was hot."

"You're forgetting again, son. Remember that the hot, dense material is
entirely enclosed in an envelope impervious to all vibrations longer
than those of the fifth order. You could put your hand upon it now,
without receiving any sensation either of heat, or of cold."

"Yeah, that's right, too. I noticed that I could take a faidon right out
of an electric arc and it wouldn't even be warm. I couldn't explain why
it was, but I see now. So that stuff inside that lens will always stay
as hot as it is right now! Zowie! Here's hoping she never explodes!
Well, there's the bell--for once in my life, I'm all ready to quit when
the whistle blows," and arm in arm the young Terrestrial chemist and the
aged Norlaminian physicist strolled out to their waiting airboat.

CHAPTER XII

Flying Visits--Via Projection

"Well, what to do?" asked Seaton as he and Rovol entered the laboratory,
"Tear down this fourth-order projector and tackle the big job? I see the
lens is here, on schedule, so we can hop right into it."

"We shall have further use for this mechanism. We shall need at least
one more lens of this dense material, and other scientists also may have
need