"Graff came here with a sudden coup to war against the Garlands. With all his diabolical science--by every inhuman means he could employ. And he was very much surprised to be abruptly repulsed. The Garland Scientific Guild was ready; the Brauns were horribly slaughtered; chastened, and things went on as before." * * * * * I had been aware for some time that the scene around us was brightening. The moon evidently had set, or nearly so. A luminous quality of yellow color seemed in the air; the purple haze was going. Dawn was at hand. Our first day upon Xenephrene! What would it bring forth? My breath came faster at the thought. The vault of foliage around and over us was taking clearer form; new colors were coming to it. Down on the ground the crawling thing was coming back past our gate. It met another of its kind. They rose up, stood for a moment together, and then parted, crawling their separate ways. Had they spoken to each other as they passed? They had seemed, to my quickened, stimulated fancy, almost like two shapes of men, guards, exchanging a low word as they passed on their night patrol. I shuddered. Men! That crawling thing down there in the shadow by the burnished metal fence might have been a giant ant; certainly nothing human. Father leaned forward toward us; his earnest gaze held my wandering attention. "I come now to the more recent events which directly concern us of the earth. Xenephrene wandered in to join our little family of planets gathered about our sun. Graff, with his science, in which astronomy evidently is further progressed than ours of earth, was well aware of what had happened. His telescope showed him earth--showed him very possibly things on earth which gave him a new lust for conquest. Here was a great, fair world, ready to his hand for the taking. He could never be master of Xenephrene--of that he was convinced. "He gathered a small force and went to earth. His intention then was not to try to conquer it--the trip was merely experimental. He wanted to make sure of conditions there--" "To know what he was up against," I put in. "Exactly, Peter. He is a clever, resourceful fellow. He landed, as we know, near New York. Then went South, to investigate the warmer climate--the snow and cold were disconcerting to him. "To give you an idea how carefully he plans things--he speaks now both our English and Spanish, making ready for his future earth campaigns when he may need them. He captured--this he told me very blandly--an earth man near New York. Learned English from him. And also captured a Venezuelan--who supplied the Spanish. Both captives, as Graff blandly says, unfortunately died when he was through with them. It was not a great task for him to learn our tongues. The Xenephrene mind absorbs new things--learns--more readily than ours. And Graff is perhaps even exceptional in that." "Zetta--" I began.