rious blending of human and bestial features. It stood
barely five feet in height, yet its great scale-armored skull was at
least three times as large as that of a grown man. There was colossal
mental power and nameless evil glowing in the dark depths of the two
abnormally large eyes that stared fixedly out from under the heavy
forehead. The thing had no nose. The mouth opening, surrounded by a
rosette of flabby gray skin, was a mere slit. The entire skull and face
were covered with small, closely overlapping scales of lusterless gray.

The head merged directly into a short black torso nearly as wide as the
skull itself. From this trunk there writhed a score of long black
snake-like tentacles, each terminating in a flexible three-fingered
"hand." The trunk was supported by two short thick legs, armored with
gray scales, and ending in broad three-toed feet.

"Greetings, Earthlings!" The voice that emanated from the grotesque
mouth was surprisingly resonant in tone. "Allow me to present myself. I
am Zehru, imperial scientist of Xollar."

* * * * *

The monstrosity seemed amused at the expressions of blank surprise upon
the faces of his captives. "I learned your crude language from your
brain cells while you slept under the red ray," he explained. "Also I
learned many other things regarding your planet, Earth. I am glad to
find your world so well adapted to my purpose. Within a few years after
my arrival there I shall be its unquestioned ruler."

Blake started to voice the many questions that were surging through his
mind, but an imperious gesture of an outflung tentacle stopped him.

"Silence, Earthling!" There was tolerant contempt in Zehru's ringing
voice. "I will explain some of the things that puzzle you. There is no
reason why I should trouble myself to do so, yet it may while away the
tedium of the short wait yet remaining before my apparatus becomes
charged to the required point. Listen carefully, Earthling, for at best
you will find many of my thoughts beyond the feeble limits of the word
forms with which you have provided me.

"The world of Xollar, where you now are, is a planet in the island
universe known to your astronomers as the Great Nebula of Andromeda.
Until a short time ago I was one of its ruling scientists. Then I
sinned, and so grave was my sin according to the laws of this planet
that the Council of Three decreed my death. That death sentence upon
Xollar is irrev