The third mole hesitated.

"You are higher in rank than we are, Jumor," he thought at length,
"and like Asmo, I dare not resist him. I heard the king give this
upper-earth man his authority while he was away. I will assist."

"And I will leave the room," retorted Jumor.

He moved to a door and threw it open. At the threshold he paused and
sent back a final thought.

"I will appeal to Astok, our ruler. I will send now a message to him
to hurry home that he may judge between us."

The door closed behind him. Saranoff chuckled audibly.

"Good-by, Carnes," said Dr. Bird sadly. "This devil can do all he says
he can, and more. I'm sorry I brought you and Garland into this mess."

"Oh, well, it can't be helped, Doctor," replied the detective with an
attempt at cheerfulness. "What is he going to do to us?"

"He'll have to use instruments for what he plans," said the doctor.
"Ordinarily a routine mental operation is performed without the use of
extraneous power. The mind of the operator is electrically connected
to the mind of the victim. By means of thought waves the operator
banishes from the mind of the subject such portions of his memory and
mentality as he chooses. He may then substitute other things in place
of what he has removed. Any of the Selom could operate on you, but I
doubt whether Jumor himself could do it successfully on me without aid
from power. Here come the instruments."

* * * * *

Asmo and Camol took from a cabinet on the side of the wall what looked
like a cloth helmet. Attached to it were a dozen wires which they
connected to a box on a table. The box was made of crystal and inside
it could be seen a number of vacuum tubes and coils of various
designs. Other leads ran to a similar helmet which Asmo placed on
Saranoff's head. A heavy cable ran to a switch on the wall.

As Camol closed the switch the tubes in the box began to glow with
weird lights. Violet, green and orange streamers of light came from
them to dance in wild patterns on the laboratory walls. For five
minutes Saranoff made adjustments to dials on the front of the crystal
box. The colored lights died away and a gentle golden glow came from
the apparatus. He threw off the helmet.

Camol left the laboratory and returned with a large coil on the top
of which was mounted a parabolic reflector. A device like a clock on
the front of the coil was constantly marking the passage of time. The
dial had two in