*

He got excitedly to his feet, grabbed his companion's arm and pointed
out this strange thing--and as he pointed another star blinked out and
did not reappear.

"Something's happening up there," Jim said soberly. "I don't know
what; but I, for one, don't feel quite comfortable."

He kept peering at the place pointed out, at a spot of black even
darker than the inky sky; or did he only imagine it was darker? he
asked himself. Soon the spot enlarged; became a distinct patch; then,
growing still, obliterated one star after another around its borders.
It made a pure circle; and before long the starlight glinting off its
sides showed it to be a great, tinted sphere.

Swiftly it dropped down on the two men, and they watched it
hypnotized, incapable of moving. It was only a hundred yards overhead
when some presence of mind returned to Clee.

"Run, Jim!" he yelled, moving away. "It's coming straight down!"

Wilson came out of his daze and the two sprinted wildly for the path
that led down the spur on which their camp was located. They had not
made more than fifty yards when they heard a dull thud, and, turning,
saw the great sphere resting on the ground with a slight rocking
motion that quickly ceased.

A gully cut into the trail ahead, and when they reached it Clee
grabbed his partner's arm and pulled him off to one side, where,
panting with their sudden exertion, they wormed up to the brow and
peeped over at their strange visitor.

* * * * *

The sphere stood in the starlight on the very spot they had been
occupying when they first saw it. Right in their campfire it lay--a
great, dark-red crystal shape perhaps fifty feet in diameter, whose
surface sparkled with innumerable facets. It rested quietly on the
ground, as if oblivious of the two routed men breathlessly watching it
from a short distance. No ports or variations of any kind were visible
to mar its star-reflecting sides.

"It must be some new kind of dirigible!" murmured Jim; "but why did it
go and pick on us for its midnight call!"

"It's a space ship from Mars," answered Clee with a serious face.
"They heard you, and're coming to take you for your ride. See?" he
added quickly, pointing.

A large door was opening in the side of the sphere, and the
illumination within threw a bright beam of amber-colored light in
their direction. A metallic ramp slid out and angled down to the
ground.

Breathlessly the two men wa