ut I did not expect him to win so easily. Zerexi shouldn't
have gone into a knot so early against such a fast man."

"Oh, I don't know," argued Kromodeor. "His big mistake was in that
second body check. If he had blocked the sixth arm with his fifth, taken
out the fourth and second with his third, and then gone in with...." and
so, quite like two early experts after a good boxing match, the friends
argued the fine points of the contest long after they had reached their
quarters.

Day after day the vast duplex cone of Vorkulian fortresses sped
toward the north pole of the great planet, with a high and constant
velocity. Day after day the complex geometrical figure in space remained
unchanged, no unit deviating measurably from its precise place in the
formation. Over rapacious jungles, over geysers spouting hot water,
over sullenly steaming rivers and seas, over boiling lakes of mud, and
high over gigantic volcanoes, in uninterrupted eruptions of cataclysmic
violence, the Vorkulian phalanx flew--straight north. The equatorial
regions, considerably hotter than the poles, were traversed with
practically no change in scenery--it was a world of steaming fog,
of jungle, of hot water, of boiling, spurting mud, and of volcanoes.
Not of such mild and sporadic volcanic outbreaks as we of green Terra
know, but of gigantic primordial volcanoes, in terrifyingly continuous
performances of frightful intensity. Due north the Vorkulian spearhead
was hurled, before the rigorous geometrical alignment was altered.

"All captains, attention!" Finally, in a high latitude, the flagship
sent out final instructions. "The hexans have detected us and our long
range observers report that they are coming to meet us in force. We will
now go into the whirl, and proceed with the maneuvers exactly as they
have been planned. Whirl!"

At the command, each vessel began to pursue a tortuous spiral path.
Each group of seven circled slowly about its own axis, as though each
structure were attached rigidly to a radius rod, and at the same time
spiraled around the line of advance in such fashion that the whole
gigantic cone, wide open maw to the fore, seemed to be boring its way
through the air.

"Lucky again!" Kromodeor, in the wardroom, turned to Wixill as the two
prepared to take their respective watches. "It looks as though the first
action would come while we're on duty. I've got just one favor to ask,
if you have to economize on power, let Number One