He reached the street. His legs were heavy as if he were fighting against a hundred gravities. He felt that the Dim-Ing was merely toying with him, as a cat with a mouse. As Jim hurried on, or tried to hurry, to the place where he would find Conley and Spurlin and the score of other men, he knew that one man could not hope to stand against that awful power. But perhaps many men, in perfect mental accord.... Again he felt the strange, fierce tingling in every fiber of his being until he thought he was walking in a sluggish sea of fire. It seemed hours later when he reached the familiar building and hurried along the metal-lined tunnel where the Dim-Ing's radiations seemed a little less intense. It was with a feeling of profound gratitude that he pushed through a final door, and sank down into a soothing oblivion. But not before he glimpsed many men rushing toward him, with surprised shouts. Among them he saw Conley. VII Jim opened his eyes and stared up into Conley's worried face. He coughed a little on the stinging liquor the latter was pouring down his throat. "How long have I been here?" he asked urgently. "Just a minute or two, lad. You're mighty battered and tired, but you'll be all right now. Just rest a while." "Rest!" Jim repeated, and climbed quickly to his feet. "None of us can rest now--there's no time! It may be too late already--but we've got to make a fight for it, if for no other reason than because Kaarji's counting on it! No, Conley, I'm not delirious." He waved the worried Irishman away. "Listen, you men! I've solved the mystery of M'Tonak, and we've got to get out of here!" In an anxious rush of words he explained the situation, told briefly of his discovery of the Dim-Ing and what it was, and of Kaarji's avowal to destroy all of M'Tonak. "In another few weeks, Spurlin, your spaceship would have been finished, and the greatest horror the universe has ever known would have launched itself upon Earth! It still might happen! _We've got to get back out there at once, en masse, and hold that thing's attention before it discovers what Kaarji's up to!_" It had all happened too suddenly for the men to quite believe him. They looked askance at each other. "But after three years of heart-breaking work," Spurlin said, "to give up my spaceship now! That's what you're asking." "A hell of a lot of good your spaceship will be, with millions of tons of rock and ice heaped on it! That's gonna happen about fifteen minutes from now, or less! Man, don't you understand? Kaarji said he'd give me a half-hour--" "It's a trick!" Wessel squawked loudly. "Damned funny that he ever got back here to us at all! He's discovered a protection against those greenish rays, he's trying to lure us all outside to our death, so he can have all this new metal for himself!"