"_Venus!_" cried Dr. Aiken suddenly. "Venus--that is your homeland! I knew it! Ramey, do you remember just as the Japanese attacked I was about to tell you of one of the oddest carvings we had discovered? That mural was a representation of the solar system, showing at the center the mother Sun, then, circling about her in their orbits, the planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the other spheres. "Two things about this mural perplexed us. One, that there was a definite line scored between the planets Venus and Earth, such a line as experience in deciphering Angkor's symbolism had taught us always represented 'contact' of some sort. "The second point was that immediately beneath this diagram were a series of smaller carvings. One showing a forest of lush vegetation unlike anything known to Man, another showing a cylindrical, shiplike object surrounded by heavenly bodies, a third showing a troup of earthmen kneeling before a man like Sugriva. A man with blue skin. My Lord--you know the carving whereof I speak?"[7] [Footnote 7: The mural here described is no invention of the author. It actually exists. Many and ludicrous have been the attempts of savants to give a logical explanation of its meaning. Readers of scientific fiction, less hindered by dogma and prejudice, may be willing to accept it as factual proof that at one time in history intercourse did exist between this earth and the planet Venus.--Ed.] Sugriva nodded. "Indeed, I know it well. Did I not cause it to be made? In the long years that have elapsed since I assumed the protectorate of this Earth colony I have had my subjects carve much of the history of our people into the walls of this citadel. But more of that later. I would hear now of yourselves. You came hither in the cabinet of Rudra?" Ramey said, "Then you _knew_ of the time-machine?" "Of a certainty, my son. Was it not built by my own blood-brother, Rudra, who, until he grew restless and fretful, ruled this colony with me? Ah, he was a brilliant one, Rudra, and a great scientist. It was he who designed the _vilyishna_, aye, and even the Bow of Death which now you bear. Important things might he and I have accomplished had he been content to stay here with me. But a score of years ago, dissatisfied and impatient, he built in the chamber beneath the altar room the cabinet which flies backward in Time. In this cabinet he made many trips into the past, returning ever and anon to amuse me with tales of marvels seen. But ever longer and more daring grew his trips, until finally there was one from which he returned not ever, nor the cabinet in which he had gone. Tell me--and saw you my blood-brother Rudra in the era whence you came?" * * * * * Dr. Aiken shook his head sorrowfully. "No, my Lord. We saw him not. The cabinet was thick with dust, and Rudra's bow lay on the floor. The machine itself had lain hidden in its chamber from the sight of man for countless centuries." Sugriva sighed.