ut inwardly to Phobar's consciousness from the
peak of the titan far above him came a command:

"What are you called?"

Phobar opened his lips--but even before he spoke, he knew that the thing
had understood his thought: "Phobar."

"I am Garboreggg, ruler of Xlarbti, the Lord of the Universes."

"Lord of the _Universes_?"

"I and my world come from one of the universes beyond the reach of your
telescopes." Phobar somehow felt that the thing was talking to him as he
would to a new-born babe.

"What do you want of me?"

"Tell your Earth that I want the entire supply of your radium ores mined
and placed above ground according to the instructions I give, by seven
of your days hence."

A dozen questions sprang to Phobar's lips. He felt again that he was
being treated like a child.

"Why do you want our radium ores?"

"Because they are the rarest of the elements on your scale, are absent
on ours, and supply us with some of the tremendous energy we need."

"Why don't you obtain the ores from other worlds?"

"We do. We are taking them from all worlds where they exist. But we need
yours also."

Raiders of the universe! Looting young worlds of the precious radium
ores! Piracy on a cosmic scale!

"And if Earth refuses your demand?"

* * * * *

For answer, Garboreggg rippled to a wall of the room and pressed a
button. The wall dissolved, weirdly, mysteriously. A series of vast
silver plates was revealed, and a battery of control levers.

"This will happen to all of your Earth unless the ores are given us."

The titan closed a switch. On the first screen flashed the picture of a
huge tower such as Phobar had seen in the metal city.

Garboreggg adjusted a second control that was something like a
range-finder. He pressed a third lever--and from the tower leaped a
surge of terrific energy, like a bolt of lightning a quarter of a mile
broad. The giant closed another switch--and on the second plate flashed
a picture of New York City.

Then--waiting. Seconds, minutes drifted by. The atmosphere became tense,
nerve-cracking. Phobar's eyes ached with the intensity of his stare.
What would happen?

Abruptly it came.

A monstrous bolt of energy streaked from the skies, purple-blue death in
a pillar a fourth of a mile broad crashed into the heart of New York
City, swept up and down Manhattan, across and back, and suddenly
vanished.

In fifteen seconds, only a molten hell of fused str