to be
seven feet--well-built men and women with unusually large chests, who
would have seemed very human indeed, but for a ghastly, death-like blue
tinge to their skin. Even their lips were as bright a blue as man's lips
are red. The teeth seemed to be as white as any human's, but their
mouths were blue.

"They look as if they'd all been eating blueberries!" laughed Wade. "I
wonder what makes their blood blue? I've heard of blue-blooded families,
but these are the first I've ever seen!"

"I think I can answer that," said Morey slowly. "It seems odd to us--but
those people evidently have their blood based on hemocyanin. In us, the
oxygen is carried to the tissues, and the carbon dioxide carried away by
an iron compound, hemoglobin, but in many animals of Earth, the same
function is performed by a copper compound, hemocyanin, which is an
intense blue. I am sure that that is the explanation for these strange
people. By the way, did you notice their hands?"

"Yes, I had. They strike me as having one too many fingers--look
there--that fellow is pointing--why--his hand hasn't too many fingers,
but too many thumbs! He has one on each side of his palm! Say, that
would be handy in placing nuts and bolts, and such fine work, wouldn't
it?"

Suddenly a lane opened in the crowd, and from the great black and gold
building there came a file of men in tight-fitting green uniforms; a
file of seven-foot giants. Obviously they were soldiers of some
particular branch, for in the crowd there were a number of men dressed
in similar uniforms of deep blue.

"I think they want one or more of us to accompany them," Arcot said.
"Let's flip a coin to decide who goes--two better stay here, and two go.
If we don't come back inside of a reasonable period of time, one of you
might start making inquiries; the other can send a message to Earth, and
get out of harm's way till help can come. I imagine these people are
friendly now, however--else I wouldn't go."

The leader of the troop stepped up to the door of the _Solarite_, and
coming to what was obviously a position of attention, put his left hand
over his right breast in an equally obvious salute, and waited.

The coin was flipped with due ceremony--it would decide which of them
were to have the distinction of being the first Terrestrians to set foot
on Venus. Arcot and Morey won, and they quickly put on the loose-fitting
ventilated cooling suits that they might live comfortably in the hot ai