est of conical spires whose sides were
of dark glittering stuff that reminded Bert of the crystals of
carborundum before pulverizing for commercial use. A myriad of deep
colors were reflected from the sharply pointed piles in the light of
a great cold moon that hung low in the heavens above them.

In the half light down there between the circular bases of the cones,
weird creatures were moving. Like great earthworms they moved,
sluggishly and with writhing contortions of their many-jointed bodies.
Long cylindrical things with glistening gray hide, like armor plate
and with fearsome heads that reared upward occasionally to reveal the
single flaming eye and massive iron jaws each contained. There were
riveted joints and levers, wheels and gears that moved as the
creatures moved; darting lights that flashed forth from
trunnion-mounted cases like the searchlights of a battleship of Earth;
great swiveled arms with grappling hooks attached. They were
mechanical contrivances--the metal monsters of which the Wanderer had
spoken. Whether their brains were comprised of active living cells or
whether they were cold, calculating machines of metallic parts, Bert
was never to know.

"See, the gateway," the Wanderer was saying. "They are investigating.
It is the beginning of the end of Urtraria--all as it occurred in the
dim and distant past."

He gripped Bert's arm, pointing a trembling finger, and his face was a
terrible thing to see in the eery light of their sphere.

* * * * *

A sharply outlined circle of blue-white appeared down there in the
midst of the squirming monsters. The sphere drifted lower and Bert was
able to see that a complicated machine was being trundled out from an
arched doorway in the base of one of the conical dwellings. It was
moved to the edge of the light circle which was the bowl on that
rooftop of Urtraria. The same bowl! A force area like that used by Tom
Parker, an area existent in many planes of the fifth dimension
simultaneously, an area where the various components of wave motion
merged and became as one. The gateway between planes!

The machine of the metal monsters was provided with a huge lens and a
reflector, and these were trained on the bowl. Wheels and levers of
the machine moved swiftly. There came an orange light from within that
was focused upon lens and reflector to strike down and mingle with the
cold light of the bowl. A startling transformation ensue