echoed the gloomy one.

"They were pigeons," Estelle explained. "They shouldn't be hard
to snare or trap."

"I usually have my dinner before now," the gloomy one protested,
"and I'm told I won't get anything to-night."

The other men began to straighten their shoulders. The peevishness
of one of their number seemed to bring out their latent courage.

"Well, we've got to stand it for the present," one of them said
almost philosophically. "What I'm most anxious about is getting
back. Have we any chance?"

Arthur nodded emphatically.

"I think so. I have a sort of idea as to the cause of our sinking
into the Fourth Dimension, and when that is verified, a corrective
can be looked for and applied."

"How long will that take?"

"Can't say," Arthur replied frankly. "I don't know what tools,
what materials, or what workmen we have, and what's rather more to
the point, I don't even know what work will have to be done. The
pressing problem is food."

"Oh, bother the food," some one protested impatiently. "I don't
care about myself. I can go hungry to-night. I want to get back to
my family."

"That's all that really matters," a chorus of voices echoed.

"We'd better not bother about anything else unless we find we
can't get back. Concentrate on getting back," one man stated more
explicitly.

"Look here," said Arthur incisively. "You've a family, and so have a
great many of the others in the tower, but your family and everybody
else's family has got to wait. As an inside limit, we can hope to
begin to work on the problem of getting back when we're sure there's
nothing else going to happen. I tell you quite honestly that I think
I know what is the direct cause of this catastrophe. And I'll tell
you even more honestly that I think I'm the only man among us who
can put this tower back where it started from. And I'll tell you
most honestly of all that any attempt to meddle at this present time
with the forces that let us down here will result in a catastrophe
considerably greater than the one that happened to-day."

"Well, if you're sure--" some one began reluctantly.

"I am so sure that I'm going to keep to myself the knowledge of what
will start those forces to work again," Arthur said quietly. "I
don't want any impatient meddling. If we start them too soon God
only knows what will happen."

VIII.

Van Deventer was eying Arthur Chamberlain keenly.

"It isn't a question of your wanting pay in exchange f