e nor heard of me probably.

"Gregg Haljan." I added, "I am a skilled navigator; perhaps it was
fortunate you saved me."

He flung me a look and there was a tinge of amusement in it. "You
would save your own skin now?"

"Why not? You're a Martian, and this is a war also against Mars."

His look darkened, but then again sardonic amusement struck him.

"We shall see what the Great Master says. There will be a few of our
type humans, men and women, wanted when the worlds begin anew. The
Great Master said so. He wants to study life on Earth as it was before
the destruction."

Molo's glance swept behind us. I turned to see three figures
approaching. My heart pounded. They were Anita, Venza and Molo's
sister, Meka. They came slowly, trying to walk, with balancing
outstretched arms. With a dozen curious Wandl workers crowding them,
they came and joined Molo before us. My heart was pounding, but I
flung them a curious, impersonal stare.

"You are here," said Molo. "Good. We go now." He bent over Snap and
me. "I advise you make no effort to leap away, though it may look
easy."

"Not me," said Snap. "Where would I go alone in this damned world? I
can't very well leap back to Earth, can I?"

"True enough," said Molo. "You have sense, little fellow. But I just
warn you: the guard who will watch you always is very sharp of eye.
And the weapons here bring very swift death."

I could feel Anita's gaze upon me, but I did not dare look her way.

"Let's go," I said, "You will have no trouble with me."

With Molo leading us, and the giant insect-like guard following close
behind, we made our slow, awkward way across the esplanade portals of
the huge globular building.

And within, we traversed a cylinder-like, padded corridor and came
presently upon the strangest interior scene I had ever beheld.

10

The room was so large that it seemed almost the entire interior of the
building. It was a globular room, a hundred and fifty feet or more in
diameter. The inner surface was crowded with people. It was a huge,
hollow interior of a ball; and upon its concave surface a throng of
the brown-shelled workers were gathered. They sat on low seats at the
curved bottom of the room, where we entered, and up the sides and upon
the slopes and the top, like flies in a globe, hanging head downward.
There was no up or down here; the slight gravity made little
difference.

I gazed up amazed to where, a hundred and fifty feet above