arth. Now, the crowd had
divided, and a group of men was approaching, clothed in great heavy
coats that seemed warm enough to wear in Terrestrial arctic regions!

"Why--Arcot--what's the idea of the winter regalia?" asked Fuller in
surprise.

"Think a moment--they are going to visit a place whose temperature is
seventy degrees colder than their room temperature. In the bargain,
Venus never has any seasonal change of temperature, and a heavy bank of
clouds that eternally cover the planet keeps the temperature as constant
as a thermocouple arrangement could. The slight change from day to night
is only appreciable by the nightly rains--see--the crowd is beginning to
break up now. It's night already, and there is a heavy dew settling.
Soon it will be rain, and the great amount of moisture in the air will
supply enough heat, in condensing, to prevent a temperature drop of more
than two or three degrees. These men are not used to changes in
temperature as we are and hence they must protect themselves far more
fully."

Three figures now entered the airlock of the _Solarite_, and muffled in
heavy garments as they were, large under any conditions, they had to
come through one at a time.

Much that Arcot showed them was totally new to them. Much he could not
explain to them at all, for their physics had not yet reached that
stage.

But there was one thing he could show them, and he did. There were no
samples of the liquids he wanted, but their chemistry was developed to a
point that permitted the communication of the necessary data and Arcot
told them the formula of Wade's gas. Its ability to penetrate any
material at ordinary temperatures, combined with its anesthetic
properties, gave it obvious advantages as a weapon for rendering the
opposing forces defenseless.

Since it was able to penetrate all substances, there was no means of
storing it. Hence it was made in the form of two liquids which reacted
spontaneously and produced the gas, which was then projected to the spot
where needed.

Arcot asked now that the Venerian chemists make him a supply of these
two liquids; and they promptly agreed. He felt he would have a fighting
chance in combatting the enemy if he could but capture one of their
flying forts. It seemed a strange task! Capturing so huge a machine with
only the tiny _Solarite_--but Arcot felt there was a good possibility of
his doing it if he but had a supply of that gas.

There was one difficulty--one s