l tell
you...."

"We shall not meet again, my friend," Gool said with a half smile. The
words seemed definitely ominous to Gerry, but before he could say
anything more the old man had bowed ceremonially and then stepped back
off the landing platform.

The flying cars of Moorn were shallow bowls of some gleaming blue metal,
oval in shape and with three comfortably upholstered seats. They had no
visible means of propulsion. Curved windshields of heavy glass protected
the passengers from the air-blast of swift motion. Gerry got in beside
the pilot of the leading car, who was a slight and taciturn Moornian
with the big head and high forehead of his race. A complicated control
board was fixed in place before him. Closana and Portok were in the seat
next behind, while two more members of the _Viking's_ crew occupied the
rear seat.

"Ready?" the pilot asked. Gerry nodded.

The pilot touched a switch on the control board before him, and three
globular dials glowed with an iridescent light. The space-car rose
easily from the landing platform, moving upward and outward at a steep
angle. There was neither noise nor vibration. The city vanished as soon
as they passed outside the zone of dimensional-control on its outer
walls. Looking back and down, Gerry saw only the pitted rock of the
foundations far below. A cart was moving toward the beach with some bars
of metal for the _Viking_.

Then the next flying car came into sight as it sped out beyond the
walls. Its nose came into sight first, then the middle section, finally
the whole car. One after another, the rest of the flotilla took off till
they were flying in a V-shaped formation like a flock of wild geese.

"What kind of power makes these cars go?" Gerry asked.

"Iso-electronic rays," the pilot replied shortly, not taking his eyes
from the indicator board.

"And can they be made invisible like the city?"

"Yes. The dimensional-control lever is here." The pilot pointed at many
of the controls, then again lapsed into silence.

It was evident that Gerry was not going to be able to have any extended
conversation with the driver of the car. That might be due to
instructions the man had received from his superiors, or simply to his
own nature. Probably a combination of both! These men of Moorn were a
cold and self-centered race. Probably they were an isolated off-shoot of
the original Old Ones who had first settled this planet, a group who had
managed to retain the scien