audible any signal originating within many light-years of them, upon any
possible communications band. And constantly at least two men, with
every sense concentrated in their ears, were listening to those
instruments.

Listening--straining to distinguish in the deafening roar of background
noise from the over-driven tubes any sign of voice or of signal:

Listening--while, millions upon millions of miles beyond even the
prodigious reach of those ultra-instruments, three human beings were
even then sending out into empty space an almost hopeless appeal for the
help so desperately needed!

CHAPTER 18

THE SPECIMENS ESCAPE

Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatest
needs of any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted the
Terrestrial specimens to retain possession of their ultra-beam
communicators. Thus it was that Costigan had been able to keep in touch
with his sweetheart and with Bradley. He learned that each had been
placed upon exhibition in a different Nevian city; that the three had
been separated in response to an insistent popular demand for such a
distribution of the peculiar, but highly interesting creatures from a
distant solar system. They had not been harmed. In fact, each was
visited daily by a specialist, who made sure that his charge was being
kept in the pink of condition.

As soon as he became aware of this condition of things Costigan became
morose. He sat still, drooped, and pined away visibly. He refused to
eat, and of the worried specialist he demanded liberty. Then, failing in
that as he knew he would fail, he demanded something to _do_. They
pointed out to him, reasonably enough, that in such a civilization as
theirs there was nothing he could do. They assured him that they would
do anything they could to alleviate his mental suffering, but that since
he was a museum piece he must see, himself, that he must be kept on
display for a short time. Wouldn't he please behave himself and eat, as
a reasoning being should? Costigan sulked a little longer, then wavered.
Finally he agreed to compromise. He would eat and exercise if they would
fit up a laboratory in his apartment, so that he could continue the
studies he had begun upon his own native planet. To this they agreed,
and thus it came about that one day the following conversation was held:

"Clio? Bradley? I've got something to tell you this time. Haven't said
anything before, for fear things might not