e flashes had come, flashes that
had told of the distress and suffering of men since the time when
wireless waves had been widely used. The old call--the S O S!--it had
come from that throat; it had seemed a call sent directly to him! And
Chet Bullard's eyes held steadily toward that place of mystery and of a
sender unknown.

"I'm going down," he told himself more than O'Malley. "There's something
about it I can't understand, something pretty damnable about it, I
admit. But, whatever it is, that's what I am here to find out."

"'Tis a divil of a place to die," said O'Malley, "and not one I'd pick
out at all. But it may be we won't have to. I'm goin' along, of course."

* * * * *

The master pilot was reaching for the flexible metal suit he had brought
from the store room. It was air-tight, gas-proof; it would hold an
internal pressure far beyond anything the wearer would demand; and its
headpiece was flexible like the body of the suit, and would fit him
closely.

He drew the suit up over the clothes he wore and closed the front with
one pull of a metal tab. Within, soft rubber-faced cushions had
interlocked; the body would fasten to the headpiece in the same way. But
Chet paused with the headpiece in his hand.

He looked at the glass window that would be before his eyes; at the thin
diaphragms that would come over his ears and that would admit all
ordinary sounds; and he tried out the microphone attachment that he
could switch on to bring to his ears the faintest whisper from outside.
All this he examined with care while he seemed to be thinking deeply.
Then he straightened and looked at his companion.

"No, Spud, you're not going," he said. "This is my job. You'll stay with
the ship. You and I make a rather small army: we don't know yet what we
may be up against, and we mustn't risk all our forces in one advance.
I'll see what is there; and, in case anything happens, you can take the
ship back. I've taught you enough on the way over; I had this very
thing in mind."

He slipped the helmet over his blond head before O'Malley could reply.

* * * * *

The ear-pieces and the microphone allowed him to hear. Another diaphragm
in the center of the metal across his chest took his own voice and
shouted it into the room.

"Sure, I know you want to go. Spud; but you'll have to stay in reserve.
Now show me how well you can fly the ship. Lift her off; then dr