dry
mud that had encased it like an airtight coffin, had by now been chipped
away by the tiny investigators; but soiled clothing still clung to it,
after perhaps a million years. Metal had gone into decay--yes. But not
this body. The answer to this was simple--alkali. A mineral saturation
that had held time and change in stasis. A perfect preservative for
organic tissue, aided probably during most of those passing eras by
desert dryness. The Dakotas had turned arid very swiftly. This body was
not a mere fossil. It was a mummy.

* * * * *

"Kaalleee!" Man, that meant. Not the star-conquering demi-gods, but the
ancestral stock that had built the first machines on Earth, and in the
early Twenty-first Century, the first interplanetary rockets. No wonder
Loy Chuk and his co-workers were happy in their paleontological
enthusiasm! A strange accident, happening in a legendary antiquity, had
aided them in their quest for knowledge.

At last Loy Chuk gave a soft, chirping signal. The chant of triumph
ended, while instruments flicked in his tiny hands. The final instrument
he used to test the mummy, looked like a miniature stereoscope, with
complicated details. He held it over his eyes. On the tiny screen
within, through the agency of focused X-rays, he saw magnified images of
the internal organs of this ancient human corpse.

What his probing gaze revealed to him, made his pleasure even greater
than before. In twittering, chattering sounds, he communicated his
further knowledge to his henchmen. Though devoid of moisture, the mummy
was perfectly preserved, even to its brain cells! Medical and biological
sciences were far advanced among Loy Chuk's kind. Perhaps, by the
application of principles long known to them, this long-dead body could
be made to live again! It might move, speak, remember its past! What a
marvelous subject for study it would make, back there in the museums of
Kar-Rah!

"Tik, tik, tik!..."

But Loy silenced this fresh, eager chattering with a command. Work was
always more substantial than cheering.

* * * * *

With infinite care--small, sharp hand-tools were used, now--the mummy of
Ned Vince was disengaged from the worthless rust of his primitive
automobile. With infinite care it was crated in a metal case, and
hauled into the flying machine.

Flashing flame, the latter arose, bearing the entire hundred members of
the expedition. The craft