Late the next day, the village fire volunteers of Grenville were called to the Jameson estate where they found the laboratory a seething mass of flames. The destruction of the tower and laboratory had been a part of the instructions left Douglas Jameson by his eccentric uncle. As long as he lived, Douglas Jameson kept the secret. It was only after his death that the facts became known, and for a long time, until the discovery by the astronomer, Clement, in 1968, the story was doubted. True, the grave vault was found empty, but even at this late date it was reported as part of the hoax. It was Clement who established the existence of the Jameson satellite. It circled the earth every nine days. * * * * * The years passed. Changes moved slowly on the earth, while generation after generation vanished into forgotten obscurity. Still the rocket satellite pursued its lonely way, a cosmic coffin. Fiery, scintillating stars formed Professor Jameson's funeral cortege. Millions of years went by. Mankind was replaced by other forms of life which in turn knew their day only to disappear. Earth's atmosphere became rare. Forty million years after the day when his rocket had been hurled off the face of the earth, Professor Jameson's body still lay perfectly preserved. Passing meteors were the only companions of the rocket satellite, and these the professor had recognized as dangerous. For that reason he had installed radium repulsion rays which were excited into automatic action by the proximity of approaching meteors. Earth lay closer to the sun--which had cooled. Its rotation had ceased, and one side, like the moon, forever faced the sun. The professor's dream had been realized. He had remained unchanged for millions of years. His ambitions, however, fell far short of the adventures which fate held in store for him. A strange spaceship, from the planet of a distant star, came exploring among the dead worlds of the solar system. They passed the aging Earth and found the professor's rocket satellite. Strange creatures of metal guided by organic brains, they stopped and examined the professor's rocket. They were machine men from Zor. Once they had been organic creatures, but they had transposed their brains to the coned, metal heads which surmounted their cubed, mechanical bodies. The bodies were upheld by four metal legs and were equipped with six metal tentacles. They communicated by thought projection. What the professor had accomplished in death, they had accomplished in life. They were undying just so long as no injury occurred to their metal heads housing the all-important brain. Any metal parts, such as legs, tentacles or body parts, were replaced when worn out. A complete circle of mechanical eyes were fitted into the coned heads, and one eye peered virtually from the apex. These were shuttered and could also be replaced.