olved into geometric figures, an inconceivable number of them,
extending off into limitless space in a huge arc, revolving and
tumbling like the colored particles in an old-fashioned kaleidoscope.
Cubes, pyramids and cones of variegated hues. Swift-rushing spheres
and long slim cylinders of brilliant blue-white; gleaming disks of
polished jet, spinning....

Abruptly the view stabilized, and clear-cut stationary objects sprang
into being. An unbroken vista of seamed chalky cliffs beside an inky
sea whose waters rose and fell rhythmically yet did not break against
the towering palisade. Wave-less, glass-smooth, these waters. A huge
blood-red sun hanging low in a leaden though cloudless sky, reflecting
scintillating flecks of gold and purple brilliance from the ocean's
black surface.

At first there was no sign of life to be seen. Then a mound was rising
up from the sea near the cliff, a huge tortoiselike shape that
stretched forth several flat members which adhered to the vertical
white wall is if held by suction disks. Ponderously the thing turned
over and headed up from the inky depths, spewing out from its concave
under side an army of furry brown bipeds. Creatures with bloated
torsos in which head and body merged so closely as to be
indistinguishable one from the other, balanced precariously on two
spindly legs, and with long thin arms like tentacles, waving and
coiling. Spiderlike beings ran out over the smooth dark surface of the
sea as if it were solid ground.

* * * * *

"Jupiter!" Bert looked up from the eyepiece, blinking into the
triumphant grinning face of Tom Parker. "You mean to tell me these
creatures are real?" he demanded. "Living here, all around us, in
another plane where we can't see them without this machine of yours?"

"Surest thing. And this is but one of many such planes."

"They can't get through, to our plane?"

"Lord no, man, how could they?"

A sharp crackling peal of thunder rang out overhead and Tom Parker
went suddenly white. Outside, the sky was cloudless.

"And that--what's that?" Bert remembered the warning of the old man of
the village, and Joan's obvious fear.

"It--it's only a physical manifestation of the forces I use in
obtaining visual connection, one of the things that worries Joan. Yet
I can't find any cause for alarm...."

The scientist's voice droned on endlessly, technically. But Bert knew
there was something Tom did not understand,