uisitive, waiting; almost as
though it had asked for something and wondered why I did not let it have
it. The shock still held me rigid, although a tingle in every nerve told
me of returning force.

The disc tilted back to place, bent toward me again. I heard a shout;
heard a bullet strike the pigmy that now clearly menaced; heard the
bullet ricochet without the slightest effect upon it. Dick leaped beside
me, raised a foot and kicked at the thing. There was a flash of light
and upon the instant he crashed down as though struck by a giant hand,
lay sprawling and inert upon the floor.

There was a scream from Ruth; there was softly sibilant rustling all
about her. I saw her leap the crevice, drop on her knees beside Drake.

There was movement on the flagging where she stood. A score or more of
faintly shining, bluish shapes were marching there--pyramids and cubes
and spheres like those forming the shape that stood before me. There was
a curious sharp tang of ozone in the air, a perceptible tightening as of
electrical tension.

They swept to the edge of the fissure, swam together, and there, hanging
half over the gap was a bridge, half spanning it, a weird and fairy arch
made up of alternate cube and angle. The shape at my feet disintegrated;
resolved itself into units that raced over to the beckoning span.

At the hither side of the crack they clicked into place, even as had the
others. Before me now was a bridge complete except for the one arc near
the middle where an angled gap marred it.

I felt the little object I held pulse within my hand, striving to
escape. I dropped it. The tiny shape swept to the bridge, ascended
it--dropped into the gap.

The arch was complete--hanging in one flying span over the depths!

Upon it, over it, as though they had but awaited this completion, rolled
the six globes. And as they dropped to the farther side the end of the
bridge nearest me raised itself in air, curved itself like a scorpion's
tail, drew itself into a closer circled arc, and dropped upon the floor
beyond.

Again the sibilant rustling--and cubes and pyramids and spheres were
gone.

Nerves tingling slowly back to life, mazed in absolute bewilderment,
my gaze sought Drake. He was sitting up, feebly, his head supported by
Ruth's hands.

"Goodwin!" he whispered. "What--what were they?"

"Metal," I said--it was the only word to which my whirling mind could
cling--"metal--"

"Metal!" he echoed. "These things me