han a second--Mrs. Vaneman was still in the
act of hanging up the receiver when the image materialized in the living
room of Dorothy's girlhood home.

"Hello, mother and dad," Seaton's voice was cheerful but matter-of-fact.
"I'll thicken this up so you can see us better in a minute. But don't
think that we are flesh and blood. You'll see simply three-dimensional
talking pictures of ourselves, transmitted by radio."

For a long time Mr. and Mrs. Vaneman chatted with the four visitors from
so far away in space, while Seaton gloried in the working of that
marvelous projector.

"Well, our time's about up," Seaton finally ended the visit. "The
quitting-whistle's going to blow in five minutes, and they don't like
overtime work here where we are. We'll drop in and see you again maybe,
sometime before we come back."

"Do you know yet when you are coming back?" asked Mrs. Vaneman.

"Not an idea in the world, mother, any more than we had when we started.
But we're getting along fine, having the time of our lives, and are
learning a lot besides. So-long!" and Seaton clicked off the power.

* * * * *

As they descended from the projector and walked toward the waiting
airboat, Seaton fell in beside Rovol.

"You know they've got our new cruiser built of dagal, and are bringing
it over here. Dagal's good stuff, but it isn't as good as your purple
metal, inoson, which is the theoretical ultimate in strength possible
for any material possessing molecular structure. Why wouldn't it be a
sound idea to flash it into inoson when it gets here?"

"That would be an excellent idea, and we shall do so. It also has
occurred to me that Caslor of Mechanism, Astron of Energy, Satrazon of
Chemistry, myself, and one of two others, should collaborate in
installing a very complete fifth-order projector in the new _Skylark_,
as well as any other equipment which may seem desirable. The security of
the Universe may depend upon the abilities and qualities of you
Terrestrials and your vessel, and therefore _nothing_ should be left
undone which it is possible for us to do."

"You chirped something then, old scout--thanks. You might do that, while
I attend to such preliminaries as wiping out the Fenachrone fleet."

In due time the reinforcements from the other planets arrived, and the
mammoth space-cruiser attracted attention even before it landed, so
enormous was she in comparison with the tiny vessels having her in