would theoretically yield an almost perfect accumulator--one many
thousands of times as efficient as ours in mass-to-energy ratio. Then,
too, you realize, of course, that there is a bare possibility that
intra-atomic energy may not be absolutely impossible."

"Nix on that, Quince. I'll stand for a lot, but not for that last idea!
It's hard to say that anything's impossible, of course, except things
made so by definition or by being contrary to observational facts, but
the best work shows that intra-atomic energy is just about as impossible
as anything can well be. It has been shown pretty conclusively that all
ordinary matter is already in its most stable state, so that work must
be done upon any ordinary atom to decompose it. Besides, if he had
either radioactive accumulators or intra-atomic energy, he would have
cut us up long ago. Nope, the answer is that he's probably yelled for
help and is trying to hold out until it gets here," was Brandon's
rejoinder.

"What can we do about it?" asked Quince.

"Don't know yet. I do know, though, that we aren't half as ready for
trouble as I thought we were. There's a dozen things I want to do that
I can't because we haven't got the stuff. Don't say 'I told you so,'
either--I know you did! You're the champion ground-and-lofty thinker of
the century. Alcantro!

"Here!"

"Round up the gang, will you, and figure me out a screen and a set of
meters that will indicate an open band? We lose too much time feeling
around anyhow, and we're too apt to take one on the chin while we're
doing it. Also, you ought to make it so it'll shoot a jolt into the
opening, while you're at it," said Brandon.

"We shall begin at once," and the massive Martian as he replied, stepped
over to the calculating machine.

"Well, Quince, we can't do much to him this way--he's crawled into a
hole and pulled the hole in after him. Gosh, I wish we had more stuff!"

"After all, we have everything whose necessity and practicability could
have been foreseen in the light of our information. We can, of course,
go further."

"You chirped it! But we can't let things ride this way or we'll get our
hair singed. We'll have to decorate him with the grand slam, I guess."

"Yes, it seems as though the time for emergency measures has arrived."

"Put everything on the center of the band?"

"That is probably the best frequency to use in a case of this kind."

"He can't control, so we'll push him down close to the gro