own eyes began
to weep. The boy in the green tunic shifted the small tripod to a new
position. As he carried it, the calmness and the warmth of the air
changed remarkably. There was a monstrous gust of icy wind, and warm
calm, and another gust. But when he put the tripod down again there was
only calm once more.

Soames heard the droning of another 'copter, far away.

The boy in the green tunic held out his hand. It had the glittering tiny
object in it. From a fifty-foot distance, he swept his hand from one end
to the other of the wrecked ship. Flame leaped up. The magnesium-alloy
vessel burned with a brightness that stung and dazzled the eyes. A
monstrous, a colossal flaming flare leaped and soared ... and died. Too
late, Soames fumbled for his camera. There was no longer a wrecked ship
on the ice. There were only a few, smoking, steaming fragments.

When the second 'copter landed beside the first, the four children were
waiting composedly to be taken away.

CHAPTER 3

The world's affairs went on as usual. There were the customary number of
international crises. The current diplomacy preferred blackmail by
threat of atomic war.

Naturally, even Antarctica could be used to create turmoil. The
population of the continent was confined to the staffs of research-bases
established during the International Geophysical Year. In theory the
bases were an object-lesson in co-operation for a constructive purpose,
which splendid spirit of mutual trust and confidence must spread through
the world and some day lead to an era of blissful and unsuspicious
peacefulness.

But that time was not yet.

There'd been an outburst of static of an unprecedented kind.

It had covered the globe on all wave-lengths, everywhere of absolute
maximum volume. It had used millions of times as much power as any
signal ever heard before. No atom bomb could have made it. Science and
governments, together, raised three very urgent questions. Who did it?
How did they do it? And, why did they do it?

Each major nation suspected the others. Scientific progress had become
the most urgent need of every nation, and was expected to be the end of
all of them.

At Gissell Bay, however, the two 'copters came droning in, and settled
down, and Gail and Soames and Captain Moggs got out, and instantly
picked up a boy or a girl and hurried to get them out of the bitter
cold.

The staff reacted immediately to the children. They tried to be
reassurin