thin call at all times in case I
should return and have sudden need for them."

"All these things shall be done."

The conference ended, the four nobles were quickly landed upon Osnome
and once more the _Skylark_ traveled out into her element, the total
vacuum and absolute zero of the outer void, with Crane at the controls.

"You certainly sounded savage, Dick. I almost thought you really meant
it!" Dorothy chuckled.

"I did mean it, Dot. Those fellows are mighty keen on detecting bluffs.
If I hadn't meant it, and if they hadn't known that I meant it, I'd
never have got away with it."

"But you _couldn't_ have meant it, Dick! You wouldn't have destroyed the
Osnomians, surely--you know you wouldn't."

"No, but I would have destroyed what was left of the Urvanians, and all
five of us knew exactly how it would have turned out and exactly what I
would have done about it--that's why they all pulled in their horns."

"I don't know what would have happened," interjected Margaret. "What
would have?"

"With this new stuff the Urvanians would have wiped the Osnomians out.
They are an older race, and so much better in science and mechanics that
the Osnomians wouldn't have stood much chance, and knew it.
Incidentally, that's why I'm having them build our new ship. They'll put
a lot of stuff into it that Dunark's men would miss--maybe some stuff
that even the Fenachrone haven't got. However, though it might seem that
the Urvanians had all the best of it, Urvan knew that I had something up
my sleeve besides my bare arm--and he knew that I'd clean up what there
was left of his race if they polished off the Osnomians."

"What a frightful chance you were taking, Dick!" gasped Dorothy.

"You have to be hard to handle those folks--and believe me, I was a
forty-minute egg right then. They have such a peculiar mental and moral
slant that we can hardly understand them at all. This idea of
co-operation is so new to them that it actually dazed all four of them
even to consider it."

"Do you suppose they will fight, anyway?" asked Crane.

"Absolutely not. Both nations have an inflexible code of honor, such as
it is, and lying is against both codes. That's one thing I like about
them--I'm sort of honest myself, and with either of these races you need
nothing signed or guaranteed."

"What next, Dick?"

"Now the real trouble begins. Mart, oil up the massive old intellect.
Have you found the answer to the problem?"

"What problem