ow'd you get here? It would take more than my
brains--you can't see our sun from anywhere near Osnome, even if you
knew exactly where to look for it."

"Easy. Remember those wrecked instruments you threw out of _Skylark I_
when we built _Skylark II_?" Having every minute detail of the
configuration of Seaton's brain engraved upon his own, Dunark spoke
English in Seaton's own characteristic careless fashion. Only when
thinking deeply or discussing abstruse matter did Seaton employ the
carefully selected and precise phrasing, which he knew so well how to
use. "Well, none of them was beyond repair and the juice was still on
most of them. One was an object-compass bearing on the Earth. We simply
fixed the bearings, put on some minor improvements, and here we are."

"Let us all sit down and be comfortable," he continued, changing into
the Kondalian tongue without a break, "and I will explain why we have
come. We are in most desperate need of two things which you alone can
supply--salt, and that strange metal, 'X'. Salt I know you have in great
abundance, but I know that you have very little of the metal. You have
only the one compass upon that planet?"

"That's all--one is all we set on it. However, we've got close to half a
ton of the metal on hand--you can have all you want."

"Even if I took it all, which I would not like to do, that would be less
than half enough. We must have at least one of your tons, and two tons
would be better."

"Two tons! Holy cat! Are you going to plate a fleet of battle cruisers?"

"More than that. We must plate an area of copper of some ten thousand
square miles--in fact, the very life of our entire race depends upon
it."

"It's this way," he continued, as the four earth-beings stared at him in
wonder. "Shortly after you left Osnome we were invaded by the
inhabitants of the third planet of our fourteenth sun. Luckily for us
they landed upon Mardonale, and in less than two days there was not a
single Osnomian left alive upon that half of the planet. They wiped out
our grand fleet in one brief engagement, and it was only the _Kondal_
and a few more like her that enabled us to keep them from crossing the
ocean. Even with our full force of these vessels, we cannot defeat them.
Our regular Kondalian weapons were useless. We shot explosive copper
charges against them of such size as to cause earthquakes all over
Osnome, without seriously crippling their defenses. Their offensive
weapons are a