each side; it slid
smoothly and easily on this runner over the equally smooth, metallic
rock of the ground.

The reindeer-like animals were harnessed by their heads to a single
shaft. They were guided by a short, pointed pole in the hands of the
driver, who, as occasion demanded, dug it vigorously into their flanks.

In this manner the travelers rode perhaps half an hour more. The
passageway sloped steeply downward, and they made good speed. Finally
without warning, except by a sudden freshening of the air, they emerged
into the open, and found themselves facing a broad, rolling stretch of
country, dotted here and there with trees--the country of the Oroids at
last.

For the first time since leaving their own world the adventurers found
themselves amid surroundings that at least held some semblance of an
aspect of familiarity. The scene they faced now might have been one of
their own land viewed on an abnormally bright though moonless evening.

For some miles they could see a rolling, open country, curving slightly
upward into the dimness of the distance. At their right, close by, lay a
broad lake, its surface wrinkled under a gentle breeze and gleaming
bright as a great sheet of polished silver.

Overhead hung a gray-blue, cloudless sky, studded with a myriad of
faint, twinkling, golden-silver stars. On the lake shore lay a
collection of houses, close together, at the water's edge and spreading
back thinly into the hills behind. This they knew to be Arite--the city
of their destination.

At the end of the tunnel they left the sleigh, and, turning down the
gentle sloping hillside, leisurely approached the city. They were part
way across an open field separating them from the nearest houses, when
they saw a group of figures coming across the field towards them. This
group stopped when still a few hundred yards away, only two of the
figures continuing to come forward. They came onward steadily, the tall
figure of a man clothed in white, and by his side a slender, graceful
boy.

In a moment more Lao, walking in front of the Doctor and his two
companions, stopped suddenly and, turning to face them, said quietly,
"The Master."

The three travelers, with their hearts pounding, paused an instant. Then
with a shout the Very Young Man dashed forward, followed by his two
companions.

"It's Rogers--it's Rogers!" he called; and in a moment more the three
men were beside the Chemist, shaking his hand and pouring at him