ed a fifth of the population of the United
States of North America; a third of the wealth.

Cities! The entire world lived in them! Civilization was too highly
developed nowadays. Adventure was a thing of the past. Of course there
were the other planets, Mars and Venus, but they were as bad. At least
he had found them so on his every business trip. He wished he had
lived a couple of centuries ago, when the first space-ships ventured
forth from the earth. Those were days of excitement and daring
enterprise. Then a man could find ways of getting away from
things--next to nature--out into the forests; hunting; fishing. But
the forests were gone, the streams enslaved by the power monopolies.
There were only the cities--and barren plains. Everything in life was
made by man, artificial.

* * * * *

Something drew his eyes upward and he spotted an unusual object in the
heavens, a mere speck as yet but drawing swiftly in from the upper air
lanes. But this ship, small though it appeared, stood out from amongst
its fellows for some reason. Carr rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.
Was it? Yes--it was--surrounded by a luminous haze. Notwithstanding
the brilliance of the afternoon sun, this haze was clearly visible. A
silver shimmering that was not like anything he had seen on Earth. The
ship swung in toward the city and was losing altitude rapidly. Its
silvery aura deserted it and the vessel was revealed as a sleek,
tapered cylinder with no wings, rudders or helicopter screws. Like the
giant liners of the Interplanetary Service it displayed no visible
means of support or propulsion. This was no ordinary vessel.

Carr watched in extreme interest as it circled the city in a huge
spiral, settling lower at each turn. It seemed that the pilot was
searching for a definite landing stage. Then suddenly it swooped with
a rush. Straight for the stage of the Airways building! The strange
aura reappeared and the little vessel halted in mid-air, poised a
moment, then dropped gracefully and lightly as a feather to the level
surface not a hundred feet from where he stood. He hurried to the spot
to examine the strange craft.

"Mado!" he exclaimed in surprise as a husky, bronzed Martian squeezed
through the quickly opened manhole and clambered heavily to the
platform. Mado of Canax--an old friend!

"Devils of Terra!" gasped the Martian, his knees giving way, "--your
murderous gravity! Here, help me. I've forgo