turned forever from its sun, and one half
that is bathed in perpetual light. The long twilight zone was
uninhabited, for the people of Antri are a sun-loving race, and their
cities and villages appeared only in the bright areas of perpetual
sunlight.

Just as we reduced to atmospheric speed, Croy sent up a message

"The Governing Council sends word that we are to set down on the
platform atop the Hall of Government, the large, square white building
in the center of the city. They say we will have no difficulty in
locating it."

I thanked him and ordered him to stand by for further messages, if
any, and picked up the far-flung city of Oreo in my television disc.

* * * * *

There was no mistaking the building Croy had mentioned. It stood out
from the city around it, cool and white, its mighty columns glistening
like crystal in the sun. I could even make out the landing platform,
slightly elevated above the roof on spidery arches of silvery metal.

We sped straight for the city at just a fraction of space speed, but
the hand of the surface temperature gauge crept slowly toward the red
line that marked the dangerous incandescent point. I saw that Correy,
like the good navigating officer he was, was watching the gauge as
closely as myself, and hence said nothing. We both knew that the
Antrians would not have sent a call for help to a ship of the Special
Patrol Service if there had not been a real emergency.

Correy had made a good guess in saying that it would take about an
hour, after entering the gaseous envelope of Antri, to reach our
destination. It was just a few minutes--Earth time, of course--less
than that when we settled gently onto the landing platform.

A group of six or seven Antrians, dignified old men, wearing the
short, loosely belted white robes that we found were their universal
costume, were waiting for us at the exit of the _Ertak_, whose sleek,
smooth sides were glowing dull red.

"You have hastened, and that is well, sirs," said the spokesman of the
committee. "You find Antri in dire need." He spoke in the universal
language, and spoke it softly and perfectly. "But you will pardon me
for greeting you with that which is, of necessity, uppermost in my
mind, and in the minds of these, my companions.

"Permit me to welcome you to Antri, and to introduce those who extend
those greetings." Rapidly, he ran through a list of names, and each of
the men bowed gravely in