"They don't, do they?" Morey said, looking angry. "They might at least have been willing to see what we wanted. I want to investigate some other cities. Come on!" He had thoroughly enjoyed the rest at the little mountain lake, and he was disappointed that they had been driven away. Had they wanted to, he knew, they could easily have torn the entire city out by the roots! "I think we ought to smash them thoroughly," said Wade. "They're certainly inhospitable people!" "And I, for one, would like to know what that attraction ray was," said Fuller curiously. "The ray is easily understood after you take a look at the wreck it made of some of these instruments," Arcot told him. "It was projected magnetism. I can see how it might be done if you worked on it for a while. The ray simply attracted everything in its path that was magnetic, which included our lux metal hull. "Luckily, most of our apparatus is shielded against magnetism. The few things that aren't can be repaired easily. But I'll bet Wade finds his gear in the galley thrown around quite a bit." "Where do we go from here, then?" Wade asked. "Well, this world is bigger than Earth," said Morey. "Even if they're afraid to go out of their cities to run farms, they must have other cities. The thing that puzzles me, though, is how they do it--I don't see how they can possibly raise enough food for a city in the area they have available!" "'People couldn't possibly live in hydrogen instead of oxygen'," Arcot quoted, grinning. "That's what they told me when I made my little announcement at the meeting on the Black Star situation. The only trouble was--they did. That suggestion of yours meets the same fate, Morey!" "All right, you win," agreed Morey. "Now let's see if we can find the other nations on this world more friendly." Arcot looked at the sun. "We're now well north of the equator. We'll go up where the air is thin, put on some speed, and go into the south temperate zone. We'll see if we can't find some people there who are more peaceably inclined." Arcot cut off the invisibility tubes. Instantly, all the enemy ships in the neighborhood turned and darted toward them at top speed. But the shining _Ancient Mariner_ darted into the deep blue vault of the sky, and a moment later was lost to their view. "They had a lot of courage," said Arcot, looking down at the city as it sank out of sight. "It doesn't take one-quarter as much courage to fight a known enemy, no matter how deadly, as it does to fight an unknown enemy force--something that can tear down mountains and throw their forts into the air like toys." "Oh, they had courage, all right," Morey conceded, "but I wish they hadn't been quite so anxious to display it!"