glinting golden against the white of its awful captor.

"The space-ship!" gasped Mado. "It's vanished again!"

They hurtled madly in the direction of this monster of the heavens,
their reverse energy useless.

"We're lost, Mado." Carr was calm now. This was excitement with a
vengeance. He'd wished for it and here it was. But he'd much rather
have a chance to fight for his life. Fine ending to his dreams!

"Imps of the canals! The thing's alive!" Mado hurled himself at the
controls as a huge blob of the horrible whiteness broke loose from the
main body and wobbled uncertainly toward them. A long feeler reached
forth and grasped the errant portion, returning it with a vicious
jerk.

"Turn back! Turn back!" came the eery warning from the golden sphere.
"All is over for us. Our hull is crushed. The air is pouring from our
last compartment. Already we find breathing difficult. Turn back! The
third satellite of the fifth planet is our home. Visit it, we beseech
you, and report the manner of our going. This vile creature of space
has power to draw you to its breast, to crush you as we are crushed."

* * * * *

The _Nomad_ lurched and shuddered, drawn ever closer to the horrid
mass of the thing. A gigantic jellyfish, that's what it was, a hundred
miles across! Carr shivered in disgust as it throbbed anew, sending
out those grasping streamers of its mysterious material. As the
_Nomad_ plunged to its doom with increasing speed, Mado tried to
locate some spot in the universe where an extreme effect could be
obtained from the full force of the attracting or repulsive energies.
They darted this way and that but always found themselves closer to
the milky billows that now were pulsating in seeming eagerness to
engulf the new victim.

Once more came the telepathic warning, "Delay no longer. It is high
time you turned back. You must escape to warn our people and yours.
Even now the awful creature has us in its vitals, its tentacles
reaching through our shattered walls, creeping and twining through the
passages of our vessel. Crushing floors and walls, its demoniac
energies heating our compartment beyond belief. We can hold out no
longer. Go! Go quickly. Remember--the third satellite of the fifth
planet--to the city of golden domes. Tell of our fate. Our people will
understand. You--"

The voice was stilled. Mado groaned as if in pain and Carr saw in that
instant that each knob and lever on the