"That is not to be thought of," answered the professor hastily. "If it is possible for the exiles to escape in the car, you must accompany them as the one cool-headed, resourceful man capable of guiding the car to its destination. I shall instruct you carefully and fully. "And besides," he added, as I was about to demur, "you are a changed man, Mr. Munn. There is work for you on the home planet, for your native worth is to retrieve itself on the very scene of your unworthy exploits. I trust you follow me? Pardon me if I hurt your feelings by being too frank." He had, wittingly or unwittingly, touched the vital chord which made me eager to regain the world I knew and loved. To stand fair in the sight of men who had known me at my worst was now my one consuming desire. "Is this your wish, Professor Quinn?" I asked huskily. "It is, Mr. Munn." "Then I shall follow your instructions to the letter." "Do so," he said, with one of his rare smiles. "And if our dear desires compass fulfillment, open this packet when you have left Njambai and are in the great void. It will be my last word to you and your fellow voyagers in space." He handed a sealed packet to me and I placed it carefully in my breast pocket. Then a hand-clasp followed in which heart went out to heart as it rarely does between man and man. "Look, Mr. Munn!" exclaimed the professor, releasing my palm. "We have reached the car." *CHAPTER XVIII.* *HOW WE OUTWITTED THE KING.* We had come to a point in the under-world which the reflected rays of the sun reached but dimly. There would have been semi-gloom but for an unreflected glow that fell upon us from above. The car, as has been brought out in the course of this narrative, had been blown into the crater of a dead volcano. This crater may be likened to a deep basin, pierced with a huge hole at the bottom. Through the hole fell daylight from the outer shell, bathing the car in a soft radiance. The projectile-shaped house was standing upright, and appeared to have suffered no injury by its fall. Professor Quinn had already explained to me how this might be possible. The screens of the anti-gravity cubes had been left open by five decrees. The energy of the cubes lightened the house to an extent that made it offer less than normal resistance to the tempest, and it also buoyed it to withstand the shock of a tumble from the upper crust of the sphere. How like an old friend that car looked! My heart labored at the mere sight of it. It was to be our bridge through space, if so we could contrive; although it might easily fall out to prove a bridge for the king and the Gaddbaizets to the earth’s undoing. After we had halted at the base of the car, the king approached the professor.