At the end of two days the sickness left Ralph, but it left him worn and exhausted physically and he was subject to terrible fits of depression. At these times the boundless space about him appalled him, weighing him down with its infinite immensity. The awful stillness crushed him. Everything seemed dead--dead as was that silent motionless figure that had been a living laughing creature who had loved him--it seemed so long ago. He felt that Nature herself was punishing him for his daring assault upon her dominions. He had presumed to set the laws of Life and Death at variance, and this was the penalty, this living death, shut in with the living dead. At such times a madness of fear and despair would grip him. He would fling himself down at Alice's side, his face buried in her cold inert hand, and sob like a child in his loneliness and agony of spirit. When this had passed he would return to his state of lethargy, sitting hours at a time staring moodily at the floor. Gaunt, hollow-eyed and listless, he seemed more mad than sane. And yet, the tremendous will-power of the man came into evidence when, within forty-eight hours' distance of Earth he threw off his blinding lethargy, and made himself ready, mentally and physically, for his last fight for Alice's life. He had drawn close enough to Earth now to use the Radio apparatus, and soon he was in hourly communication with his laboratory. He gave his instructions clearly and definitely, and he soon had assurance that everything that could possibly be done for the dead girl had been carefully arranged. Ralph's flyer landed on top of his tower sixty-nine days after his departure. He was greatly impressed at the sight of the flags of the city at half mast. The town itself was very still. There were no aeroflyers, no vehicles in motion in the streets. Business was at a standstill for ten minutes after Ralph landed. Thus the world expressed its deep sympathy. Within a few minutes Alice had been placed on an operating table in Ralph's laboratory, and 16K 5+, the world's greatest surgeon, who had been summoned, was in readiness. Ralph was placed on an operating table to the right of Alice. To the left lay Cléose, a beloved cousin of Alice. In a few seconds Alice's arteries had been opened and the Radium-K Bromide solution was drawn off. A quantity of warm, distilled water, containing antiseptic salts was then pumped through her blood vessels by two assistants. During this time the surgeon had opened the large arteries of both Ralph and Cléose, and had introduced a flexible glass tube into each. In a short time the blood of Ralph and Cléose began flowing rapidly through these tubes into Alice's blood vessels. Simultaneously a third assistant administered oxygen to Alice, while a fourth commenced to excite her heart rhythmically by means of electrical current.