already there, when the meteor fell," finished
Professor Prescott. "But can it be possible such creatures could have
produced that rocket?"

"I'm inclined to think anything is possible, now! But I'm sorry I
dragged you into this, Professor. I--"

"Forget it! We're here and we'll face it together, whatever it is."

"You're a game sport!" Stoddard gripped the older man's hand. "We'll
face it--and lick it!"

Further talk was interrupted by a stir among their captors. The ranks
parted--and into that dazzling chamber stepped a tall, bearded
personage whose aristocratic features and haughty bearing suggested a
Russian of the old regime.

* * * * *

He strode toward them, smiling sardonically.

"Greetings, my friends! Nice of you to drop in on me while in the
neighborhood." His English was suave, precise. "Professor Norman
Prescott, leader of the American Kinchinjunga expedition, I believe."
He paused and lifted inquiring eyebrows to his other guest. "And--?"

"Dr. John Stoddard, our geologist," came the answer stiffly. "And you,
sir?"

"A fellow professor, you might say. Prince Ivan Krassnov. You have
heard of me, perhaps?"

Prescott had indeed. One of Russia's most brilliant and erratic
scientists under the czar, the man had been permitted to continue his
work for the Soviets, developing among other inventions, a rocket
reported to be capable of carrying passengers. But some two years ago
he and his rocket had vanished in the course of a test flight from
Moscow, and the natural conclusion was that he had either perished in
the sea or shot off the earth altogether, since no trace of the unique
mechanism was ever found.

"Yes, I have heard of you," said the professor, recalling this
sensational story that had occupied the front pages of the world's
press for days. "And so it turns out that your rocket didn't come to
grief."

"Not exactly--though as you can see, it landed me in rather an
inaccessible spot," was the reply. "But quite an interesting one! I
was well satisfied to let the papers report me missing. You can
understand, yes?"

"I think I can, that part of it." While as for Stoddard, he was
beginning to understand a great deal. "But these curious creatures?"
he said, indicating the whispering, pigmy host that filled the cavern.
"You found them here?"

* * * * *

"They found me, rather!" corrected the prince. "But we get on quite
well to