can make
use of this information--in ten minutes you will be back on your Earth
to deliver our command. Between now and that moment you will be so
closely watched that you can do nothing and will have no opportunity to
try.

"This first lever controls the attraction rays, the second the repulsion
force. The third dial regulates the orange-ray by which you will be
returned to Earth. The fourth switch directs the electrical bolt that
destroyed New York City. Next it is a device that we have never had
occasion to use. It releases the Krangor-wave throughout Xlarbti. Its
effect is to make each atom of Xlarbti, the Sthalreh metal and
everything on it, become compact, to do away with the empty spaces that
exist in every atom. Theoretically, it would reduce Xlarbti to a
fraction of its present size, diminish its mass while its weight and
gravity remained as before.

"The next lever controls matter to be transported between here and the
first laboratory. Somewhat like the orange-ray, it disintegrates the
object and reassembles it here."

* * * * *

So that was what Phobar's captor had been trying to do with him back
there in the laboratory! "Why was I not brought here by that means?"
burst out Phobar.

"Because you belong to a different universe," answered Garboreggg.
"Without experimentation, we cannot tell what natural laws of ours you
would not be subject to, but this is one of them." A gesture of
irritation seemed to come from him. "Some laws hold good in all the
universes we have thus far investigated. The orange-ray, for instance,
picked you up as it would have plucked one of us from the surface of
Kygpton. But on Xlarbti, which is composed entirely of Sthalreh, your
atomic nature and physical constitution are so different from ours that
they were unaffected by the energy that ordinarily transports objects
here."

Thus the metal nightmare went rapidly over the control-panel. At length
Phobar's captor, or another thing like him, reentered when Garboreggg
flicked a strange-looking protuberance on the panel.

"You will now be returned to your world," came the thought of
Garboreggg. "We shall watch you through our cosmotel to see that you
deliver our instructions. Unless the nations of Earth obey us, they will
be obliterated at the end of seven days."

A wild impulse to smash that impassive, metallic monster passed from
Phobar as quickly as it came. He was helpless. Sick and despairi