Jim sat there for a long time, pondering, watching Kaarji pace restlessly back and forth. The Martian was in a strange mood this night. A foreboding mood. Jim gave up puzzling about it, and examined again that strange piece of metal. Here at last was proof of M'Tonak, perhaps the first proof any man outside had ever had! He felt an exuberant hope rising in him. "Anyway, Kaarji, thanks for telling me about this. Mind if I keep it a while?" "I want you to have it, Jim Landor." III They were away early the next morning, speeding ahead of a graying dawn. Wessel was wrong, the ice no longer shifted beneath them; but the biting sun had not yet risen. Now Jim noticed that Wessel constantly consulted the device at his waist, which registered the proximity of any radite. Apparently, however, he was satisfied with the route Kaarji was taking. It was about noon when the terrain began to surge gently again as though with a life of its own, and the mosaic pattern of cracks re-appeared. But this was not enough, as yet, to stop them. What did stop them was Wessel, who called a halt a few hours later. "Must be some Floaters near here," he told Conley. "I can tell by the way this thing's acting." He tapped the radite-finder, whose needle was gyrating erratically. "Floaters?" Jim asked. "What are they?" "Trouble," Conley groaned. "More denizens for you to get acquainted with. You'll see before long." "There they come now," Wessel pointed. "We may as well wait here, and get rid of them once and for all." A long line of tiny dots had appeared low on the horizon. They came rapidly nearer and proved to be perfect spheres about a foot in diameter, apparently with an uncanny power of levitation! There were several dozens of them. Hovering in the air, they circled around the men. A few of them darted in close, experimentally. Jim threw up a hand instinctively as one zoomed too near his head. His fist contacted the taut, metallic skin of the thing. He felt a slight but inconsequential electric shock. The Floater bounced back lightly as a feather. It hovered there, took on a shimmering, greenish iridescence as though it were glaring at the Earthman. Jim felt an uncanny chill across his brain. He was sure these things were intelligent! Again it zoomed in, but again Jim shoved it back easily. "That's it," Conley said in general to the men who were staving off the pesky things. "Make them keep their distance. They're really not dangerous, if we keep them away from the metal sleds. That's what they want." The Floaters at last seemed to call a council of war. They gathered in a group behind the men. Conley took advantage of this, and gave the order to move again. But the Floaters followed slowly, longingly. A few of them made tentative darting attempts, but the men were too wary. Suddenly then, _en masse_, the Floaters launched their real attack.