The whole enterprise was conducted quietly; and though some inkling of it leaked out, the thing was kept fairly close. During most of this period--these seemingly interminable months--Dan, Freddie and I were in Miami, where in the government shops our vehicle was being built. The government laboratories were there also. In them our mechanisms were assembled; a thousand abstruse chemical and physical problems were solved. The work progressed steadily, though with occasional maddening holdups. Father had suggested that the outer shell of the vehicle be constructed of alexite--that strange alloy, largely aluminium, after the process perfected in 1943 by the Russ, Alexia. World conditions made it difficult for some of the materials to be quickly obtained in sufficient quantity. But they were obtained, and the shell was cast almost on the date set for it in Freddie's schedule. The daylight months of 1956, in Miami, brought heat almost intolerable. It is not my plan to describe that now. Weird change from what had always before been the normal! The spring twilight thaws; the brief period of lengthening days until soon the day and night were equal; then, each twenty-four hours, a longer day, a lesser night. Swiftly changing, until soon the sun never set. Blistering summer. Then again the sun touched the horizon; rose; in twenty-four hours dipped a trifle. Night a minute long! Queer cycle! But we were growing used to it already, for human life springs swiftly to adjust itself to environment. The summer of 1956 dragged itself past. In January, 1957, with the fall twilight days passing and night again upon us, the vehicle shell was cast. Assembling of the mechanism began in February. By April, in the frigid darkness of midwinter, I think we could have been ready to start. But Xenephrene was too far away. Daily now she was overtaking the earth. We had to await the June conjunction when at her closest point for the year, father's data told us the intervening distance would be some seventeen and a half million miles. His notes named twelve o'clock noon, June 14, as our best starting time. And in this, as in every other detail, we were determined to follow his instructions to the letter. We had been worried all these months over father's warning concerning the presence on earth of enemies from Xenephrene. Indeed, that first evening in the Cain plantation house when the storage battery of the Reet Catalyst had so nearly been stolen from us, proved that father's fears were fully justified. The precious white metal cube was unharmed; and there was nothing else missing from the cylinder, as we had at first feared. The intruder had left no trace of himself; but he was a man, human like ourselves, undoubtedly. Dan and Freddie had come to grips with him; I had felt his burning blow upon my face. There was a red, blistered welt there for many days. Dan and Freddie were burned about the hands and face.