Carr watched in extreme interest as it circled the city in a huge spiral, settling lower at each turn. It seemed that the pilot was searching for a definite landing stage. Then suddenly it swooped with a rush. Straight for the stage of the Airways building! The strange aura reappeared and the little vessel halted in mid-air, poised a moment, then dropped gracefully and lightly as a feather to the level surface not a hundred feet from where he stood. He hurried to the spot to examine the strange craft. "Mado!" he exclaimed in surprise as a husky, bronzed Martian squeezed through the quickly opened manhole and clambered heavily to the platform. Mado of Canax--an old friend! "Devils of Terra!" gasped the Martian, his knees giving way, "--your murderous gravity! Here, help me. I've forgotten the energizing switch." * * * * * Carr laughed as he fumbled with a mechanism that was strapped to the Martian's back. Mado, who tipped the scales at over two hundred pounds on his own planet, weighed nearly six hundred here. His legs simply couldn't carry the load! "There you are, old man." Parker had located the switch and a musical purr came from the black box between the Martian's broad shoulders. "Now stand up and tell me what you're doing here. And what's the idea of the private ship? Come all the way from home in it?" His friend struggled to his feet with an effort, for the field emanating from the black box required a few seconds to reach the intensity necessary to counteract two-thirds of the earth's gravity. "Thanks Carr," he grinned. "Yes, I came all the way in that bus. Alone, too--and she's mine! What do you think of her?" "A peach, from what I can see. But how come? Not using a private space-flier on your business trips, are you?" "Not on your life! I've retired. Going to play around for a few years. That's why I bought the Nomad." "Retired! Why Mado, I just did the same thing." "Great stuff! They've worked you to death. What are you figuring on doing with yourself?" Carr shrugged his shoulders resignedly. "Usual thing, I suppose. Travel aimlessly, and bore myself into old age. Nothing else to do. No kick out of life these days at all, Mado, even in chasing around from planet to planet. They're all the same." * * * * * The Martian looked keenly at his friend. "Oh, is that so?" he said. "No kick, eh? Well, let me tell you, Carr Parker, you come with me and we'll find something you'll get a kick out of. Ever seen the Sargasso Sea of the solar system? Ever been on one of the asteroids? Ever seen the other side of the Moon--Uranus--Neptune--Planet 9, the farthest out from the sun?" "No-o." Carr's eyes brightened somewhat.