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late antagonist. The corpse had been burned and nearly dissolved into nothingness by some unknown weapon. I looked questioningly at the doctor. He shook his head.

"No, it wasn't I. I fancy you can thank Aien for your life, Dana."

With his help I rose to my feet and walked over to where our visitor was standing. She was regarding the body of the shadow-man with scared, fascinated eyes. At my approach she looked up quickly, and then, burying her face in her hands, ran into the adjoining room. Behind her on the ground was the long, tubelike weapon which I remembered the scout had leaned against the wall as he started toward me.

"Where were you, Doctor?" I asked.

"I've been busy, Dana," he replied, "and just arrived above ground in time to see her aim the tube. There was a flash as of a condensed lightning bolt and then all was over. But tell me quickly what has happened here."

In a few words I related the happenings of the last few hours. When I had finished, he looked unusually grave and questioned me briefly about the apparatus which the invaders had been constructing. I told him as well as I could, and we moved. over to where a gap in the wreckage gave us a clear view of the open space surrounding the cubes. Although it was now nearing dusk, the efforts of the workers were continuing with undiminished ardor. I doubted if even the temblor had distracted their attention for more than a few minutes.

In the interval since I had observed them last they had accomplished a seemingly incredible amount of work. In the open space before the cube an immense structure was now rearing itself into the sky. Steel cranes operating from doors half-way up the side of the cube swung huge masses of metal into place even as we watched. As nearly as I can describe it, the edifice resembled nothing so much as a huge cylinder with one end open to the sky. It had a bowl some sixty feet in diameter and had reached a height already greater than that.

The doctor looked it over and whistled softly under his breath. "They're not losing any time, are they?" he queried. "It will soon be up to us to do something or it will be too late."

"What can we do?" I demanded. "In what way can we act? Three of us against at least a thousand, and we don't even know what they are trying to do."

"But I have a very good suspicion," said Dr. Frelinghusen. "Let us get something to eat first and then we will plan out a course of—I repeat it—a course of action."

We went into what had been the adjoining room before the temblor and there found Aien awaiting us. Although her eyes were dry I noticed that her lips quivered as we entered, and I judged it better not to say anything at the time about the events of the afternoon. Not daring to light a fire, we squatted in the ruins of our dwelling and consumed such food as could be eaten uncooked. While we satisfied our hunger I explained and enlarged on what we had seen early in the day.

"You say the prisoner acted grieved and sorrowful when he saw the body of the old man?" demanded the doctor when I reached that point in my narrative.

I answered in the affirmative.

"Then I believe that I can throw some light on that particular portion of the happenings of today, at least," he said. "The prisoner was excited because he saw the body of his own father. The man you saw murdered was undoubtedly Aien's own brother. No wonder she wanted to go to his rescue."

He reached over and patted her