Smiling, Arcot extended his own. The Venerian grasped it--then with an exclamation on the part of each, they mutually released each other, Arcot feeling an uncomfortable sensation of heat, just as the Venerian felt a flash of intense cold! Each stared from his hand to the hand of the other in surprise, then a smile curved the blue lips of the Venerian as he very emphatically put his hand at his side. Arcot smiled in turn, and said to Morey in an animated tone: "They have a body temperature of at least 170 deg. Fahrenheit. It would naturally be above room temperature, which is 150 deg. here, so that they are most unpleasantly hot to us. Marvelous how nature adapts herself to her surroundings!" He chuckled. "I hope these fellows don't have fevers. They'd be apt to boil over!" The Venerian had picked up a small rectangle of black material, smooth and solid. He drew quickly upon it with what appeared to be a pencil of copper. In a moment he handed the tablet to Arcot, who reached out for it, then changed his mind, and motioned that he didn't want to burn his fingers. The old Venerian held it where Arcot could see it. "Why, Morey, look here--I didn't think they had developed astronomy to any degree, because of the constant clouds, but look at this. He has a nice little map of the solar system, with Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars, and all the rest on it. He has drawn in several of the satellites of Jupiter and of Saturn too." The Venerian pointed to Mars and looked inquisitively at them. Arcot shook his head and pointed quickly to Earth. The Venetian seemed a bit surprised at this, then thought a moment and nodded in satisfaction. He looked at Arcot intently. Then to the latter's amazement, there seemed to form in his mind a thought--at first vague, then quickly taking definite form. "Man of Earth," it seemed to say, "we thank you--you have saved our nation. We want to thank you for your quick response to our signals. We had not thought that you could answer us so soon." The Venerian seemed to relax as the message was finished. It obviously had required great mental effort. Arcot looked steadily into his eyes now, and tried to concentrate on a message--on a series of ideas. To him, trained though he was in deep concentration on one idea, the process of visualizing a series of ideas was new, and very difficult. But he soon saw that he was making some progress. "We came in response to no signals--exploration only--we saw the battle--and aided because your city seemed doomed, and because it seemed too beautiful to be destroyed." "What's it all about, Arcot?" asked Morey wonderingly, as he watched them staring at each other. "Mental telepathy," Arcot answered briefly. "I'm terribly thick from his point of view, but I just learned that they sent signals to Earth--why, I haven't learned--but I'm making progress. If I don't crack under the strain, I'll find out sooner or later--so wait and see." He turned again to the Venerian.