_The Mysterious Space Craft_

The machine men made way for their leader, 25X-987, who regarded the
space craft ahead of them critically.

"Have you tried communicating with it yet?" he asked.

"There is no reply to any of our signals," came the answer.

"Come alongside of it then," ordered their commander. "It is small
enough to be brought inside our carrying compartment, and we can see
with our penetration rays just what manner of creatures it holds. They
are intelligent, that is certain, for their space ship does imply as
much."

The space flyer of the Zoromes slowed up as it approached the mysterious
wanderer of the cosmic void which hovered in the vicinity of the dying
world.

"What a queer shape it has," remarked 25X-987. "It is even smaller than
I had previously calculated."

A rare occurrence had taken place among the machine men of Zor. They
were overcome by a great curiosity which they could not allow to remain
unsatiated. Accustomed as they were to witnessing strange sights and
still stranger creatures, meeting up with weird adventures in various
corners of the Universe, they had now become hardened to the usual run
of experiences which they were in the habit of encountering. It took a
great deal to arouse their unperturbed attitudes. Something new,
however, about this queer space craft had gripped their imaginations,
and perhaps a subconscious influence asserted to their minds that here
they have come across an adventure radically unusual.

"Come alongside it," repeated 25X-987 to the operator as he returned to
the control room and gazed through the side of the space ship in the
direction of the smaller cosmic wanderer.

"I'm trying to," replied the machine man, "but it seems to jump away a
bit every time I get within a certain distance of it. Our ship seems to
jump backward a bit too."

"Are they trying to elude us?"

"I don't know. They should pick up more speed if that is their object."

"Perhaps they are now progressing at their maximum speed and cannot
increase their acceleration any more."

"Look!" exclaimed the operator. "Did you just see that? The thing has
jumped away from us again!"

"Our ship moved also," said 25X-987. "I saw a flash of light shoot from
the side of the other craft as it jumped."

Another machine man now entered and spoke to the commander of the Zorome
expedition.

"They are using radium repellent rays to keep us from approaching," he
informed.

"Counteract