id a hand on Bert's arm. "And for so long as it exists it
constitutes a serious menace to your civilization. It is a gateway to
your world, a means of contact with your plane of existence for those
many vicious hordes that dwell in other planes of the fifth dimension.
Without it, the Bardeks had not been able to enter and effect the
kidnaping of your friends. Oh, I tried so hard to warn them--Parker
and the girl--but could not do it in time."

A measure of understanding came to Bert Redmond. This was the thing
Joan had feared and which Tom Parker had neglected to consider. The
forces which enabled the scientist to see into the mysterious planes
of this uncharted realm were likewise capable of providing physical
contact between the planes, or actual travel from one to the other.
Tom had not learned how to use the forces in this manner, but the
Bardeks had.

* * * * *

"We travel now along a different set of coordinates, those of
space-time," said the Wanderer. "We go into the past, through eons of
time as it is counted in your world."

"Into the past," Bert repeated. He stared foolishly at his host, whose
eyes glittered strangely in the flickering light.

"Yes, we go to my home--to what was my home."

"To your home? Why?" Bert shrank before the awful contorted face of
the Wanderer. A spasm of ferocity had crossed it on his last words.
Some fearful secret must be gnawing at the big man's vitals.

"Again you must trust me. To understand, it is necessary that you
see."

The gentle whir of machinery rose to a piercing shriek as the Wanderer
manipulated the tiny levers of a control board that was set in the
smooth transparent wall. And the rushing light-forms outside became a
blur at first, then a solid stream of cold liquid fire into which they
plunged at breakneck speed.

There was no perceptible motion of the sphere, however. It was the
only object that seemed substantial and fixed in an intangible and
madly gyrating universe. Its curved wall, though transparent, was
solid, comforting to the touch.

Standing by his instrument board, the Wanderer was engrossed in a
tabulation of mathematical data he was apparently using in setting the
many control knobs before him. Plotting their course through infinity!
His placid serenity of countenance had returned, but there was a new
eagerness in his intense gaze and his strong fingers trembled while he
manipulated the tiny levers and dials.