The morning was well advanced when we started with father from "Under Gardens." He wanted to show us the city; we would finish at the government house--I call it that for the want of a better term--and make our plea to the Council. I was not aware then what thoughts and vague plans possessed Dan and Freddie; but for my own part, my mind was roaming upon what father had said: "With your youth and strength and daring we might even try to make away with the Garlands' weapons. Get them to earth--" Why not? I determined that what was shown me of the city and the government this morning, I would see with eyes and mind open to watch every opportunity. And I must get a chance to plan alone, with Dan and Freddie. Hulda and Zetta were determined to appear before the Council with us. Just as we started, Freddie said abruptly: "Professor Vanderstuyft, fix it so we can go through the Scientists' Grotto, will you?" His thoughts were running in the same channels as my own! Dan gave him a very significant nod of approval; and father said firmly: "I intend to. But it will likely be after the midday meal. I want you to see the Infra-red Control. The greatest power for good or evil in this world." Zetta and Hulda stood apart from us at the doorway. Zetta called: "Shall we start? The guards are here, Professor Vanderstuyft--they say you insis' on having them with us." A group of the brown insect things were ranged before our gate! I could not approach them at first without an inward shudder--a reluctance wholly involuntary, which made me revolt at their nearness. Jointed brown things crawling prone on the ground. Gruesome. Not alone because their size was full that of a man--gruesome, in the way they sometimes stood upright upon three hind legs; other legs dangling like arms; head, grotesquely wearing a single, multiple-lens eye; antennae, like arms waving above the head. Gruesome for all this--and more gruesome for a crude leather jacket strapped around them in the fashion of a garment. Things--living things--more than giant insects as we of earth would conceive the term; yet less than humans. Some stood erect now; they eyed my father as one to whom they must look for commands. Others crawled unheeding along the edge of the fence--ghastly! Horrible! One stopped, half raised itself, and eyed me with a calculating stare that turned me cold. We started. Some of the insects remained about the house; eight went with us, four of them slithering along on each side of us. It was full daylight now. The sunlight came down through the jungle ceiling in a subdued yellow glow. There was a street up there; I could see the straight lines of a causeway laid upon the top of the foliage; figures moving along it. We were under a portion of the city. Father had said so; and now, almost at once, we came to the foot of an incline which led us upward.