which afforded unobstructed vision in every direction except
vertically upward and behind him. His four huge and contractile eyes
were active, each operating independently in sending its own message to
his peculiar but capable brain. One was watching the instruments, the
others scanned narrowly the immense, swelling curve of the ship's belly,
the water upon which his vessel was to land, and the floating dock to
which it was to be moored. Four hands--if hands they could be
called--manipulated levers and wheels with infinite delicacy of touch,
and with scarcely a splash the immense mass of the Nevian sky-wanderer
struck the water and glided to a stop within a foot of its exact berth.

Four mooring bars dropped neatly into their sockets and the
captain-pilot, after locking his controls in neutral, released his
safety straps and leaped lightly from his padded bench to the floor.
Scuttling across the floor and down a runway upon his four short,
powerful, heavily scaled legs, he slipped smoothly into the water and
flashed away, far below the surface. For Nevians are true amphibians.
Their blood is cold; they use with equal comfort and efficiency gills
and lungs for breathing; their scaly bodies are equally at home in the
water or in the air; their broad, flat feet serve equally well for
running about upon a solid surface or for driving their stream-lined
bodies through the water at a pace few of our fishes can equal.

Through the water the Nevian commander darted along, steering his course
accurately by means of his short, vaned tail. Through an opening in a
wall he sped and along a submarine hallway, emerging upon a broad ramp.
He scurried up the incline and into an elevator which lifted him to the
top floor of the hexagon, directly into the office of the Secretary of
Commerce of all Nevia.

"Welcome, Captain Nerado!" The Secretary waved a tentacular arm and the
visitor sprang lightly upon a softly cushioned bench, where he lay at
ease, facing the official across his low, flat "desk." "We congratulate
you upon the success of your final trial flight. We received all your
reports, even while you were traveling with many times the velocity of
light. With the last difficulties overcome, you are now ready to start?"

"We are ready," the captain-scientist replied, soberly. "Mechanically,
the ship is as nearly perfect as our finest minds can make her. She is
stocked for two years. All the iron-bearing suns within reach have been