on by flames instead of flood! He believes that only
those worthy to survive, and to stand at his back in whatever he
conceives to be his need, will guess the secret of the immersion. The
others will die!"

* * * * *

What a terrible alternative, when Dalis could as easily have given the
secret to all his people! Could have told them how to save themselves!
But it was not Dalis' way. Here, in the beginning of what was to
become a dual sovereignty of the Moon, Dalis had already taken thought
on the matter of over-population, and was destroying the many that the
few--the strongest, most ruthless--might survive! Hundreds of
thousands, millions of the Gens of Dalis, stood at the door of life,
and did not know how to enter, merely because Dalis withheld the key!
And, pausing in terror before the flames, they died, when a step and a
plunge would have saved them all!

"If he lives to be a million, if he lives through everlasting life,"
said Sarka to himself, "and does penance through a thousand
reincarnations, Dalis can never atone for this wholesale destruction
of humanity! But I ... I wonder!"

Sarka realized the nicety of the revenge of Dalis upon Jaska and
himself. Dalis had not given the secret to the prisoners, but by his
use of the cubes, he had plunged them into the very heart of the
horror, where they could see the suffering of the people of the Gens.
Then, when they had seen and appreciated the horror of it all, they
would follow the people of the Gens to death!

But Luar had spoken of thrusting them into the base of the Cone!

* * * * *

Then they were not for the flames after all! How could it be done? The
globe composed of the cubes had but to transport the prisoners to the
base of the Cone, press against that base, and open to let the
prisoners free--and in the heart of the white-blue column they would
be hurled outward from the Moon, into space. The mere prospect of such
horror caused the perspiration to break forth anew on the body of
Sarka.

But there might be a way.

"I wonder," he asked himself, "if the Earth people in _this_ crater
could read my thoughts in spite of their agonies, if I could get my
thought to them through the globe? I wonder if, reading my thoughts,
they would obey?"

Bit by bit, as parts of a puzzle fall into place, he made his plan,
and his heart beat high with excitement. Jaska bent before him to look
into his ey