in for Tom.
Then followed a nightmare of battling those twining tentacles and the
puffy crowding bodies of the spider men. Wrestling tactics and
swinging fists were all that the two Earthlings had to rely upon, but,
between them, they managed to fight off a half score of the Bardeks
and work their way back into the glowing force area.

"It's no use," Tom gasped. "We can't get back."

"Sure we can. We've a friend--here--in the force area."

Tom Parker staggered: his strength was giving out. "No, no, Bert," he
moaned, "I can't. You go on. Leave me here."

"Not on your life!" Bert swung him up bodily into the sphere as he
contacted with the invisible metal of its hull. Kicking off the
nearest of the spider men, he clambered in after the scientist.

* * * * *

The tableau then presented in the sphere's interior was to remain
forever imprinted on Bert's memory, though it was only a momentary
flash in his consciousness at the time: the Wanderer, calm and erect
at the control panel, his benign countenance alight with satisfaction;
Tom Parker, pulling himself to his feet, clutching at the big man's
free arm, his mouth opened in astonishment; Joan, seated at the
Wanderer's feet with awed and reverent eyes upturned.

There is no passing directly between the planes. One must have the
force area as a gateway, and, besides, a medium such as the cage of
the Bardeks, the orange light of the metal monsters, or the sphere of
the Wanderer. Bert knew this instinctively as the sphere darkened and
the flashing light-forms leaped across the blackness.

The motors screamed in rising crescendo as their speed increased.
Then, abruptly, the sound broke off into deathly silence as the limit
of audibility was passed. Against the brilliant background of swift
color changes and geometric light-shapes that so quickly merged into
the familiar blur, Bert saw his companions as dim wraithlike forms. He
moved toward Joan, groping.

Then came the tremendous thump, the swinging of a colossal page across
the void, the warping of the very universe about them, the physical
torture and the swift rush through Stygian inkiness....

"Farewell." A single word, whispered like a benediction in the
Wanderer's mellow voice, was in Bert's consciousness. He knew that
their benefactor had slipped away into the mysterious regions of
intra-dimensional space.

* * * * *

Raising himself slowly and d