"_Touché_, Winters," he acknowledged. "The Bow is no earthly use to us if it isn't working. And we have even less likelihood of fueling it within the deadline than has Ravana. Damn his rotten hide," he concluded almost as an afterthought. It was, thought Ramey Winters with a sickening sense of fate preordained, like standing up against a fighter who outweighed you by fifty pounds. Whose skill and reach and strength were all greater than yours. Every time a plan presented itself, logic came rushing in to overthrow it. He said, shakenly, "And what is this fuel, Sugriva? Have you none whatsoever at Chitrakuta?" The blue lord shook his head regretfully. "Not an ounce, child of earth. It is too rare. My brother Rudra, with all his scientific wisdom, succeeded in deriving only a tiny amount for his purposes from the mines at our disposal. Now all that has been used up. "It is a metal. A most precious metal, ash-silver in hue, light as the down of a swan's breast, smooth to the touch--" Ramey surrendered. "Okay," he said haggardly. "I'm licked. That's what Vibhishana told me, too. So I guess my idea wasn't so good, either. We'll have to think of some--" "_Sugriva!_" That was Dr. Aiken breaking into the conversation. "The rare and precious metal you spoke of--" "_Banaratha_," supplied the blue lord. "That is its name." "_Banaratha_," nodded the old archeologist. "Would it by any chance look like--_this_?" * * * * * And he brought from his pocket an object, handed it to the Gaanelian. For the first time since they had met him, Sugriva's calm was shattered into a thousand bits. His mouth dropped agape, his eyes widened, he rose, hand half-atremble. "But this--" he cried--"this is _banaratha_ itself! The pure metal, the rare and vital gem of metals!" "Sweet potatoes!" howled Red Barrett. "Now where'd Doc get a hunk of that boogie-woogie stuff? Give me a gander, Doc!" Then, as he craned at the object Sugriva so tremulously held in his palm, his tone changed to one of disappointment. "Why, what's all the shouting about? That stuff's nothing but plain, old everyday--" "_Aluminum!_" cried Lake O'Brien, glimpsing it. "Now I understand, Doctor! Of course it was rare--in this day and age! Until 1886 aluminum was so rare and so expensive as to be a laboratory curiosity.[12] Then Charles Martin Hall discovered that an electrolysis of bauxite dissolved in cryolite did the trick! So that's the 'rare metal' which fuels the Bow? Then, boys, we're walking ore-mines! Turn out your pockets!"