pread itself over the
scene, and we witnessed then one of the strangest scenes that the
Universe has ever beheld.

Up to the very edge of that life-giving blast of mineral-laden gas the
tenuous creatures came crowding. There were hundreds of them,
thousands of them. And they were still coming, crowding closer and
closer and closer, a mass of crawling, yellowish shadows against the
sombre earth.

Slowly, they began to fill out and darken, as they drew in the fumes
that were more than bread and meat and water to us. Where there had
been formless shadows, rotund creatures such as we had met in the
cavern stood and lashed their tentacles about in a sort of frenzied
gladness, and fell back to make room for their brothers.

* * * * *

"It's a sight to make a man doubt his own eyes, sir," said Correy, who
had come to stand beside me. "Look at them! Thousands of them pouring
from every direction. How did it happen?"

"It didn't happen. I used our disintegrator ray as a drill; we simply
sunk a huge shaft down into the bowels of the earth until we struck
the source of the vapor which the self-appointed 'ruling class' has
bottled up. We have emancipated a whole people, Mr. Correy."

"I hate to think of what will happen to those in the cavern," replied
Correy, smiling grimly. "Or rather, since you've told me of the
pleasant little death they had arranged for us. I'm mighty glad of it.
They'll receive rough treatment, I'm afraid!"

"They deserve it. It has been a great sight to watch, but I believe
we've seen enough. It has been a good night's work, but it's daylight,
now, and it will take hours to repair the damage to the _Ertak's_
hull. Take over in the navigating room, if you will, and pick a likely
spot where we will not be disturbed. We should be on our course by
to-night, Mr. Correy."

"Right, sir," said Correy, with a last wondering look at the strange
miracle we had brought to pass on the earth below us. "It will seem
good to be off in space again, away from the troubles of these little
worlds."

"There are troubles in space, too," I said dryly, thinking of the
swarm of meteorites that had come so close to wiping the _Ertak_ off
the records of the Service. "You can't escape trouble even in space."

"No, sir," said Correy from the doorway. "But you can get your sleep
regularly!"

And sleep is, when one comes to think of it, a very precious thing.

Particularly for an old man, who