trength, or his desire. It is so also with his sleep and with his
pleasures. It is--it has been--a very pleasant arrangement.

"Ours is a fertile country, and our people live very long and very
happily with little effort. We have believed that ours was the nearest
of all the worlds to the ideal; that nothing could disturb the peace
and happiness of our people. We were mistaken.

* * * * *

"There is a dark side to Antri. A side upon which the sun never has
shone. A dismal place of gloom, which is like the night upon other
worlds.

"No Antrian has, to our knowledge, ever penetrated this part of Antri,
and lived to tell of his experience. We do not even till the land
close to the twilight zone. Why should we, when we have so much fine
land upon which the sun shines bright and fair always, save for the
two brief seasons of rain?

"We have never given thought to what might be on the dark face of
Antri. Darkness and night are things unknown to us; we know of them
only from the knowledge which has come to us from other worlds. And
now--now we have been brought face to face with a terrible danger
which comes to us from that other side of this sphere.

"A people have grown there. A terrible people that I shall not try to
describe to you. They threaten us with slavery, with extinction. Four
ara ago (the Antrians have their own system of reckoning time, just as
we have on Earth, instead of using the universal system, based upon
the enaro. An ara corresponds to about fifty hours, Earth time.) we
did not know that such a people existed. Now their shadow is upon all
our beautifully sunny country, and unless you can aid us, before other
help can reach us, I am convinced that Antri is doomed!"

* * * * *

For a moment not one of us spoke. We sat there, staring at the old man
who had just ceased speaking.

Only a man ripened and seasoned with the passing of years could have
stood there before us and uttered, so quietly and solemnly, words such
as had just come from his lips. Only in his eyes could we catch a
glimpse of the torment which gripped his soul.

"Sir," I said, and have never felt younger than at that moment, when I
tried to frame some assurance to this splendid old man who had turned
to me and my youthful crew for succor, "we shall do what it lies
within our power to do. But tell us more of this danger which
threatens.

"I am no man of science, and ye