ssary to use corrosive, and
ship and contents were completely disintegrated," he dictated into his
vessel's log, some time later. "While there were of course no remains
recognizable as human, it is practically certain that Roger and his last
eleven men died.

"Look here, Fred," Cleveland called his attention to the plate, upon
which was pictured a horde of the peculiar inhabitants of the ghastly
planet, wreaking their frenzied electrical wrath upon everything within
the circle bared by Roger. "I was just going to suggest that we clean up
that planetoid Roger started, but I see that the local boys are
attending to it."

"Just as well, perhaps. I would like to stay and study these people a
little while, but we must get back on the trail of the Nevians," and the
_Boise_ leaped away into space, toward the line of flight of the
amphibians.

They reached that line and along it they traveled at full normal blast.
As they traveled their detecting receivers and amplifiers were reaching
out with their utmost power; ultra-instruments capable of rendering
audible any signal originating within many light-years of them, upon any
known frequency. And constantly at least two men were listening to those
instruments with every sense concentrated in their ears.
Listening--straining to distinguish in the deafening roar of background
noise from the over-driven tubes any sign of voice or signal.
Listening--while, millions upon untold millions of miles beyond even the
prodigious reach of those ultra-instruments, three human beings, pitted
against overwhelming odds, were even then sending out into empty space
an almost hopeless appeal for the aid so desperately needed!

CHAPTER XII

The Specimens Escape

Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatest
needs of any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted the
Terrestrial specimens to retain possession of their ultra-beam
communicators. Thus it was that Costigan had been able to keep in touch
with his sweetheart and with Bradley. He learned that each had been
placed upon exhibition in a different Nevian city: that the three had
been separated in response to an insistent popular demand for such a
distribution of the peculiar, but highly interesting creatures from a
distant solar system. They had not been harmed. In fact, each was
visited daily by a specialist, who made sure that his charge was being
kept in the pink of condition.

As soon as he becam