s only one
one-hundred-twenty-five-thousandths the volume of Sirius A, but it
weighs _one third_ as much. It radiates more per square inch than our
sun, but, due to its tiny size, it is very faint. That star, though
almost as massive as the sun, is only about the size of Earth."

"You sure have those statistics down pat!" said Fuller, laughing. "But
I must say they're interesting. What's that star made of, anyway? Solid
lux metal?"

"Hardly!" Morey replied. "Lux metal has a density of around 103, while
this star has a density so high that one cubic inch of its matter would
weigh a ton on Earth."

"Wow!" Wade ejaculated. "I'd hate to drop a baseball on my toe on that
star!"

"It wouldn't hurt you," Arcot said, smiling. "If you could lift the
darned thing, you ought to be tough enough to stand dropping it on your
toe. Remember, it would weigh about two hundred tons! Think you could
handle it?"

"At any rate, here we go. When we get there, you can get out and try
it."

Again came the shock of the start. The heavens seemed to reel about
them; the bright spot of Sirius was a brilliant violet point that
swelled like an expanding balloon, spreading out until it filled a large
angle.

Then again the heavens reeled, and they were still. The control room was
filled with a dazzling splendor of brilliant blue-white light, and an
intense heat beat in upon them.

"Brother! Feel that heat," said Arcot in awe. "We'd better watch
ourselves; that thing is giving off plenty of ultraviolet. We could end
up with third-degree sunburns if we're not careful." Suddenly he stopped
and looked around in surprise. "Hey! Morey! I thought you said this was
a double star! Look over there! That's no white dwarf--_it's a planet_!"

"Ridiculous!" snapped Morey. "It's impossible for a planet to be in
equilibrium about a double star! But--" He paused, bewildered. "But it
is a planet! But--but it can't be! We've made too many measurements on
this star to make it possible!"

"I don't give a hang whether it can or not," Wade said coolly, "the fact
remains that it is. Looks as if that shoots a whole flock of holes in
that bedtime story you were telling us about a superdense star."

"I make a motion we look more closely first," said Fuller, quite
logically.

But at first the telectroscope only served to confuse them more. It was
most certainly a planet, and they had a strange, vague feeling of having
seen it before.

Arcot mentioned this, and