his noxious
surface mold is eliminated, the planet is then ready to furnish us
sustenance, for we Xoranians live directly upon the metallic elements
of the planet itself. Our bodies are of a substance of which your
scientists have never even dreamed--deathless, invincible, living
metal!"

* * * * *

Arlok again twirled the control of the apparatus and the scene was
shifted back to the planet of Xoran, this time to the interior of what
was apparently a vast laboratory. Here scores of Xoranian scientists
were working upon captives who were pathetically like human beings of
Earth itself, working with lethal gases and deadly liquids as human
scientists might experiment upon noxious pests. The details of the
scene were so utterly revolting, the tortures that were being
inflicted so starkly horrible, that Leah and Gordon sank back in their
chairs sick and shaken.

Arlok snapped off a switch, and the green light in the tubes died.
"That last scene was the laboratory to which I shall send you two
presently," he said callously as he started back across the room
toward them.

Gordon lurched to his feet, his brain a seething whirl of hate in
which all thought of caution was gone as he tensed his muscles to hurl
himself upon that grim monstrosity from the bleak and desolate realm
of Xoran.

Then he felt Leah tugging surreptitiously at his right hand. The next
moment the bulk of something cold and hard met his fingers. It was the
revolver. Leah had secured it while Arlok was busy with his
inter-dimensional televisor.

Arlok was rapidly approaching them. Gordon hoped against hope that the
menace of that deadly tentacle might be diverted for the fraction of a
second necessary for him to get in a crippling shot. Leah seemed to
divine his thought. She suddenly screamed hysterically and flung
herself on the floor almost at Arlok's feet.

* * * * *

Arlok stopped in obvious wonder and bent over Leah. Gordon took
instant advantage of the Xoranian's diverted attention. He whipped the
revolver from behind him and fired point-blank at Arlok's unprotected
head.

The bullet struck squarely, but Arlok was not even staggered. A tiny
spot of bluish-gray skin upon his oval skull gleamed faintly for a
moment under the bullet's impact. Then the heavy pellet of lead, as
thoroughly flattened as though it had struck the triple armor of a
battleship, dropped spent and harmless to