want to know. Such wire will do very nicely. Note now
that our bodies must be grounded very thoroughly to the metal of the
ship."

"You're so right. We'll wrap the girls in silver-mesh underwear up to
the eyeballs, and run leads as big as my wrist to the frame."

* * * * *

The approach was made, and the fourth planet out from that strange sun
was selected as a ground. That planet was not at all like Earth. It had
very little water, very little atmosphere, and very little vegetation.
It was twice as massive as Earth; its surface was rugged and jagged; one
of its stupendous mountain ranges had sharp peaks more than forty
thousand feet high.

"There's one thing more we must do," Adams said. "I have barely
begun to study this zeta field, and this one may very well be
unique--irreplaceable. We must, therefore, launch all the
lifecraft--except Number Two, of course--into separate orbits around
this sun, so that a properly-staffed and properly-equipped expedition
can study it."

"Your proper expedition might get its pants burned off, too."

"There is always that possibility; but I will insist on being assigned
to the project. This information, young man, is _necessary_."

"O. K., Doc," and it was done; and in a few days the _Procyon_ hung
motionless, a good five hundred miles high, directly above the highest,
sharpest mountain peak they had been able to find.

The Bailey boom, with its spider-web-like network of grounding cables
and with a large pulley at its end, extended two hundred feet straight
out from the side of the ship. A twenty-five-mile coil of Graham wire
was mounted on the remote-controlled Hotchkiss reel. The end of the wire
was run out over the pulley; a fifteen-pound weight, to act both as a
"senser" and to keep the wire from fouling, was attached; and a few
hundred feet of wire were run out.

Then, in Lifecraft Two--as far away from the "business district" as they
could get--the human bodies were grounded and Deston started the reel.
The wire ran out--and ran--and ran--and ran. The full twenty-five miles
were paid out, and still nothing happened. Then, very slowly, Deston let
the big ship move straight downward. Until, finally, it happened.

There was a blast beside which the most terrific flash of lightning ever
seen on Earth would have seemed like a firecracker. In what was almost a
vacuum though she was, the whole immense mass of the _Procyon_ was
hurled upward l