"But, Dr. Kang," broke in Muldoon, "you're implying that spaceflight existed God-knows-how-long-ago! Centuries ... eons ... before the launching of the Wentworth-Kroll experimental rocket in 1973!"[6] [Footnote 6: Muldoon here ignores the two much earlier experimental rockets which left Earth in 1942 ... that of Dr. Frazier Wrenn from Arizona and that of Doktor Erich von Adlund from Berlin. (See Amazing Stories, Dec. 1939.) Since both these rocket flights came to disastrous end, the history of rocket travel really begins with the launching of the Wentworth-Kroll ship, _Primus_, in September, 1973.--_Ed._] Dr. Kang nodded. "And that is true. Spaceflight _did_ exist countless centuries ago. It was achieved and perfected by a race now vanished. A race which persists today only in vestigial form. You will meet some of its members a few weeks hence." "The Jovians?" demanded Gary. "You mean the Jovians once had a great civilization and visited all the worlds? From way out there in their far orbit?" "Not exactly. But from their _former_ planet." "Former--?" "Yes. The one through whose shattered remnants we have but recently passed." O'Day said dazedly, "The asteroid belt! That's right! Science _does_ believe it once comprised a planet. It was destroyed mysteriously, some say by a gigantic tug of war waged between Jupiter and the sun; others say by internal explosion, millennia before civilization came to Earth. But--" His brows drew together thoughtfully--"but the Jovians are a _blue_-skinned race, Dr. Kang." "Quite so," agreed Kang. "And as such they are bespoken in the legends of my people. And--if I am not mistaken--also in your ancient records.[7] We should pity them, my friends. They were once a great and valiant empire; now they are decadent. Those of them who escaped the holocaust which destroyed their former worlds have taken refuge on Jupiter, and there live quietly, concerning themselves no longer with matters of solar government. [Footnote 7: Such records do exist in Earthly legends. In many parts of the world may be found folk-tales concerning "blue-skinned" gods who brought to this planet the benefits of civilization.--_Ed._] "It is piteous," mourned the old man, "to see a once noble people brought so low. But that is, and ever has been, the history of man's strivings." "Centuries," mused Gary Lane. "Thousands of years ago. I wonder--" "Wonder what, my friend?" "I wonder if their downfall has anything to do with the problem we're tackling now. But--" Gary shook himself, ridding his mind of the sudden, uneasy thought--"but of course that's nonsense! It couldn't possibly be...." CHAPTER X Death Sentence