iven from
their cities and left in the deserts to perish of hunger and exposure.
This is a real danger."

"Something in it, Carr, if what he says is true. We've no arms nor
warriors. Haven't had for two centuries. You know it as well as I do."

"Bah! Overnight we could have a million armed and ready to fight them
off."

* * * * *

Detis raised his hand. "You offend me," he said gravely. "I have told
you this in good faith and you reward me with disbelief and boastful
talk. Your enemies are more powerful than you think, and your own
people utterly defenceless against them."

"I'm sorry," Carr apologized, "and I'll listen to all you have to say.
Surely your prince has not given his life in vain." He was ashamed
before this scientist of Europa.

A tinkling feminine voice from the next room called something in the
Europan tongue.

Detis raised his head proudly and his frown softened at the sound of
dainty footsteps. His voice was a caress as he replied.

A vision of feminine loveliness stood framed in the doorway and the
visitors rose hastily from their seats. Carr gazed into eyes of the
deepest blue he had ever seen. Small in stature though this girl of
Europa was--not more than five feet tall--she had the form of a
goddess and the face of an angel. He was flushing to the roots of his
hair. Could feel it spread. What an ass he was anyway! Anyone'd think
he'd never seen a woman in all his thirty-five years!

"My daughter, Ora, gentlemen," said Detis.

The girl's eyes had widened as she looked at the huge Martian with the
funny black box on his back. They dropped demurely when turned to
those of the handsome Terrestrial.

"Oh," she said, in Cos, "I didn't know you had callers."

CHAPTER VI

_Vlor-urdin_

The time passed quickly in Pala-dar, city of the golden domes. Detis
spent many hours in the laboratory with his two visitors and the fair
Ora was usually at his side. She was an efficient helper to her father
and a gracious hostess to the guests.

The amazement of the visitors grew apace as the wonders of Europan
science were revealed to them. They sat by the hour at the illuminated
screen of the rulden, that remarkable astronomical instrument which
brought the surfaces of distant celestial bodies within a few feet of
their eyes, and the sounds of the streets and the jungles to their
ears. It was no longer a mystery how the language of Cos had become so
familiar to these