concerned if you value your life.
Don't look back."

Hilary complied. His face became an expressionless mask as he lounged
in his chair, but his thoughts seethed and boiled. What terrible
mystery had enveloped the Earth during his absence? Why was Amos
Peabody tortured and made into a public mockery?

There was a slight whirring noise behind him. Heedful of his
companion's admonition he relaxed in apparent unconcern, but his hand
stole once more to the fold in his blouse. His long fingers rested
caressingly upon the butt of his automatic. There were still three
good Earth bullets in the chamber.

The whirring ceased. There was a slight jar as of something landing
on the speeding conveyor. Yet Hilary did not look back, though his
grip tightened. A heavy body stumbled toward them, cursing in strange
phrases. It passed from behind, came to a halt before the giant.
Hilary shot a sharp glance upward from under veiled lids. An
exclamation sprang full-throated to his lips, died unheard under a
tremendous effort of his will.

* * * * *

Before them stood a being--it could not be called a man. He was no
denizen of the Earth, that was evident, yet Hilary had visited all the
planets outward from our own without encountering such a monster.

He hulked before them like a behemoth, even dwarfing Hilary's
companion with his enormous stature; but it was noticeable that he
supported his weight ill, as if Earth's gravitation was too strong for
him. Manlike he was in every essential, but the skin of his face was a
pasty dull gray, and ridged and furrowed with warty excrescences. Two
enormous pink eyes, unlidded, but capable of being sheathed with a
filmy membrane, stared down at them with manifest suspicion. A gray,
three-fingered hand held an angled tube significantly. A lens gleamed
transparent in the sunlight from the open end.

Hilary did not move under the stare, nor did his companion. The mild
blue eyes were childlike as ever. The guard's gaze shifted from them
to the trembling figure of Amos Peabody. He bent over him, thrust at
him with ungentle hand. The automatic under Hilary's fingers crept
farther out from the blouse, but a warning gesture from his companion
stopped him.

The guard amused himself with shaking the blind man; then he bent
suddenly. He had seen the broken links. With ominous deliberation he
turned his vast weight upon them. His baleful pink eyes fastened upon
Hilary's comp