part in a strange drama.

Thin like his companions, yet even taller than them, he wore the same

brilliant robes and, an additional mark of distinction, a head-dress of

polished gold. He acknowledged the salute with a quick raising of his

own arms, then came swiftly forward and took his place upon the massive

throne.

Not till he was seated did the others on the platform relax their rigid

pose and seat themselves in the semicircle of chairs. And not till then

did they so much as glance at the men waiting there before them--the two

Earth-men, standing in silent, impassive contemplation of the brilliant

scene and with their arms held quiet at their sides. Then every eye

turned full upon the captives, and if McGuire had seen deadly

malevolence in the face of their captor he found it a hundred-fold in

the inhuman faces that looked down upon them now.

The inquiring mind of Professor Sykes did not fail to note the

character of their reception. "But why," he asked in whispers of his

fellow-prisoner, "--why this open hatred of us? What possible animus

can they have against the earth or its people?"

The figure on the throne voiced a curt order; the one who had brought

them stepped forward. His voice was raised in the same discordant,

singing tone that leaped and wandered from note to note. It conveyed

ideas--that was apparent; it was a language that he spoke. And the

central figure above nodded a brief assent as he finished.

Their captor took an arm of each in his long fingers and pushed them

roughly forward to stand alone before the battery of hard eyes.

* * * * *

Now the crowned figure addressed them directly. His voice quavered

sharply in what seemed an interrogation. The men looked blankly at each

other.

Again the voice questioned them impatiently. Sykes and McGuire were

silent. Then the young flyer took an involuntary step forward and looked

squarely at the owner of the harsh voice.

"We don't know what you are saying," he began, "and I suppose that our

lingo makes no sense to you--" He paused in helpless wonderment as to

what he could say. Then--

"But what the devil is it all about?" he demanded explosively. "Why all

the dirty looks? You've got us here as prisoners--now what do you expect

us to do? Whatever it is, you'll have to quit singing it and talk

something we can understand."

He knew his words were useless, but this reception was getting on his

nerves--and his arm still tingled where the scarlet one had gripped

him.

It seemed, though, that his meaning was not entirely lost. His words

meant nothing to them, but his tone must have carried its own message.

There were sharp exclamations from the seated circle. The one who had

brought them sprang forward with outstretched, clutching hands; his face

was a blood-red blotch. McGuire was waiting in crouching tenseness that

made the red one pause.

"You touch me again," said the waiting man, "and I'll knock you into an

outside loop."

The attacker's indecision was ended by a loud order from above. McGuire

turned as if he had been spoken to by the leader on the throne. The thin

figure was leaning far forward; his eye were boring into those of the

lieutenant, and he held the motionless pose for many minutes. To the

angry man, staring back and upward, there came a peculiar optical

illusion.

The evil face was vanishing in a shifting cloud that dissolved and

reformed, as he watched, into pictures. He knew it was not there, the

thing he saw; he knew he was regarding something as intangible as

thought; but he got the significance of every detail.

He saw himself and Professor Sykes; they were being crushed like ants

beneath a tremendous heel; he knew that the foot that could grind out

their lives was that of the one on the throne.

* * * * *

The cloud-stuff melted to new forms that grew clearer to show him the

earth. A distorted Earth--and he knew the distortion came from the mind

of the being before him who had never seen the earth at first hand; yet

he knew it for his own world. It was turning in space; he saw oceans and

continents; and before his mental gaze he saw the land swarming with

these creatures of Venus. The one before him was in command; he was

seated on an enormous throne; there were Earth people like Sykes and

himself who crept humbly before him, while fleets of great Venusian

ships hovered overhead.

The message was plain--plain as if written in words of fire in the brain

of the man. McGuire knew that these creatures intended that the vision

should be true--they meant to conquer the earth. The slim, khaki-clad

figure of Lieutenant McGuire quivered with the strength of his refusal

to accept the truth of what he saw. He shook his head to clear it of

these thought wraiths.

"Not--in--a--million--years!" he said, and he put behind his words all

the mental force at his command. "Try that, old top, and they'll give

you the fight of your life--" He checked his words as he saw plainly

that the thin cruel face that stared and stared was getting nothing from

his reply.

"Now what do you think about that?" he demanded of Professor Sykes. "He

got an idea across to me--some form of telepathy. I saw his mind, or I

saw what he wanted me to see of it. It's taps, he says, for us, and then

they think they're going across and annex the world."

He glanced upward again and laughed loudly for the benefit of those who

were watching him so closely. "Fine chance!" he said; "a fat chance!"

But in the deeper recesses of his mind he was shaken.

For themselves there was no hope. Well, that was all in a lifetime. But

the other--the conquest of the earth--he had to try with all his power

of will to keep from his mind the pictures of destruction these beastly

things could bring about.

* * * * *

The chief of this strange council made a gesture of contempt with the

grotesque hands that were so translucent yet ashy-pale against his

scarlet robe, and the down-drawn thin lips reflected the thoughts that

prompted it. The open opposition of Lieutenant McGuire failed to impress

him, it seemed. At a word the one who had brought them sprang forward.

He addressed himself to the circle of men, and he harangued them

mightily in harsh discordance. He pointed one lean hand at the two

captives, then beat it upon his own chest. "They are mine," he was

saying, as the men knew plainly. And they realized as if the weird talk

came like words to their ears that this monster was demanding that the

captives be given him.

An exchange of dismayed glances, and "Not so good!" said McGuire under

his breath; "Simon Legree is asking for his slaves. Mean, ugly devil,

that boy!"

The lean figures on the platform were bending forward, an expression of

mirth--distorted, animal smiles--upon their flabby lips. They

represented to the humans, so helpless before them, a race of thinking

things in whom no last vestige of kindness or decency remained. But was

there an exception? One of the circle was standing; the one beside them

was sullenly silent as the other on the platform addressed their ruler.

He spoke at some length, not with the fire and vehemence of the one who

had claimed them, but more quietly and dispassionately, and his cold

eyes, when they rested on those of McGuire and Sykes, seemed more

crafty than actively ablaze with malevolent ill-will. Plainly it was the

councilor now, addressing his superior. His inhuman voice was silenced

by a reply from the one on the throne.

He motioned--this gold-crowned figure of personified evil--toward the

two men, and his hand swept on toward the one who had spoken. He intoned

a command in harsh gutturals that ended in a sibilant shriek. And the

two standing silent and hopeless exchanged looks of despair.

They were being delivered to this other--that much was plain--but that

it boded anything but captivity and torment they could not believe. That

last phrase was too eloquent of hissing hate.

* * * * *

The creature rose, tall and ungainly, from his throne; amid the

salutations of his followers he turned and vanished through the arch.

The others of his council followed, all but the one. He motioned to the

two men to come with him, and the sullen one who had demanded the men

for himself obeyed an order from this councilor who was his superior.

He snapped an order, and four of his men ranged themselves about the

captives as a guard. Thin metal cords were whipped about the wrists of

each; their hands were tied. The wire cut like a knife-edge if they

strained against it.

The new director of their destinies was vanishing through an exit at one

side of the great hall; their guard hustled them after. A corridor

opened before them to end in a gold-lit portal; it was daylight out

beyond where a street was filled with hurrying figures in many colors.

With quavering shrieks they scattered like frightened fowls as an

airship descended between the tall buildings that reflected its passing

in opalescent hues.

It was a small craft compared with the one that had brought them, and

it swept down to settle lightly upon the street with no least regard

for those who might be crushed by its descent. Consideration for their

fellows did not appear as a marked characteristic of this strange

people, McGuire observed thoughtfully. They swarmed in endless droves,

these multicolored beings who made of the thoroughfare an ever-changing

kaleidoscope--and what was a life or two, more or less, among so many?

He found no comfort for themselves in the thought.

Shoulder to shoulder, the two followed where the scarlet figure of the

councilor moved toward the waiting ship. Only the professor paid further

heed to their surroundings; he marveled aloud at the numbers of the

people.

"Hundreds of them," he said; "thousands! They are swarming everywhere

like rats. Horrible!" His eyes passed on to the buildings in their glory

of delicate hues, as he added, "And the contrast they make with their

surroundings! It is all wrong some way; I wish I knew--"

They were in the ship when McGuire replied. "I hope we live long enough

to satisfy your curiosity," he said grimly.

The ship was rising beneath them; the opal and quartz of the city's

walls were flashing swiftly down.