"Trains that burn the black blocks and need not be hauled by hand! Green vegetation, laughing rivers and babbling brooks all on the outer shell! Rich cities, stores of art and heaps of yellow gold! These, and myriad other marvelous things are on the Earth, Olox, and guarded only by two-handed, five-fingered colossi, who have to load a tube of iron with black powder and round missiles before they can attack their foes!" The king threw back his head and laughed on the word-box. Taking a cue from the king, Olox also laughed, and so did the others. "And these Earth dwellers can’t even see in the dark!" rippled the king with contemptuous fingers. "But they are large, your majesty," ventured the high chief. "Large and therefore awkward; not quick like our people, Olox. The zetbai is the key to the situation. We could girdle the green star of these colossi, devastate it and destroy all who sought to oppose us. That is what we shall do." "It will be a noble campaign, your majesty." "Noble? That is not the word, Olox. It will be stupendous! We’ll monopolize everything when we get there, my dear sir—everything we can get our hands on. And I guess we can get our hands on whatever there is—zet will clear every obstacle out of our way." The king looked at the theoretical side. Olox, naturally, had an eye to the practical. "What are your orders for the campaign, your majesty?" he asked. "I shall leave a regent to look after Baigadd," said the king, "and myself accompany the expedition. You will be the military head, Olox." "Yes, your majesty. We are to go in the metal house?" "It is the only thing we have to go in. The metal house was unhurt by its fall into the crater?" "That appears to be the case, your majesty, strange as it may seem. It fell into the kingdom right side up and——" "The interior is in good condition?" "Very good, your majesty." "My orders to the effect that nothing should be removed from it have been carried out?" "The executioner-general would have that tub of white pigment. Nothing else has been taken from the house." "Very good. How many of our people will the house contain comfortably?" "I should say that fifty or more could dwell in it without much inconvenience." "Then select fifty soldiers, the flower of the Gaddbaizets. Among your stores be sure you have a good supply of black kaka. I want some one who is away up in ideographs to accompany the expedition as historian." "It will be attended to, your highness." The king turned and aimed his word-box at the professor. "Is that tub of white pigment essential to the proper equipment of the metal house?" he asked. "Very essential," replied Quinn. Three weeks and more in the nether kingdoms had whitened us considerably, but the professor’s face was now a sickly grayish color. "Then I will have it taken back to the house," said the king.