Sickened by what they had seen, the two friends stared at one another, white-faced. "No place for us," Mado said, after a moment. "Not with Ora." "Right!" Carr agreed grimly. "But I'd like to get in close enough to see more of Titan. How high is this cloud layer?" "About a mile above the surface. We can dive through and look them over; perhaps give them a taste of the disintegrator." "Attaboy! You took the words out of my mouth. The devils! Who'd ever dream of such a horror in the twenty-fourth century--even out here?" "What's the reason for this serious discussion?" The voice of Detis broke in on them from the door of the control room. "Plenty!" Carr exclaimed. And the Europan listened gravely as he described the awful thing they had witnessed. "I am not surprised," he said calmly, when the Terrestrial ended his recital. "There are certain emanations from the mother planet that most certainly will affect the mentality and baser instincts of a race living within their influence. I have been studying these vibrations for several hours." They turned to the forward port as the scientist indicated the great orb of Saturn with its gleaming rings. Now, as they drew near to the enormous planet, it did indeed seem that there was a sinister quality in its shifting luminosity. Carr shivered, thinking of Ora. "You mean," Mado asked, "that there are vibrations in the ether hereabouts that are set up electrically by the planet?" "Precisely. Or rather I should say they are set up by the vast number of whirling particles of which its encircling rings are composed. The wave form propagated is of a characteristic that is in tune with those portions of the brain which control the savage impulses. We may certainly expect to find superstition-ridden ignorance and all manner of vice prevalent in the races of Titan." "You think these vibrations will affect us?" Carr inquired anxiously. "Not if we make our visit short. The intensity is quite low." "It'll be a short visit, all right. We'll be in Titan's atmosphere in about forty minutes now, and, if I have my say, we'll be out of it and away again inside of an hour." "Best thing you've said today," Mado approved. "But let's have another look in the rulden. We may find other gaps in the clouds." * * * * * The mechanism of the radio telescope whirred into life as he spoke and its disk shone bright with the reflected light of Titan as it pictured the body. The _Nomad_ was speeding toward the ill-omened satellite at the rate of more than a thousand miles a second. But the surface was nowhere visible and Mado adjusted the focus so that the view of the billowy cloud-covering fell rapidly away. Though actually they were approaching the satellite with tremendous velocity, it receded swiftly in the rulden's disk until the entire body showed as a perfect sphere of uniform brilliancy. All surface markings were concealed by the blanket of clouds.