The Crystal Planetoids By STANTON A. COBLENTZ There in the sky was a vast web and perched on it were invisible beings--what did it all mean? [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories May 1942. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Philip Dunbar ran a lean exploratory hand through his tousled long black hair. There was a sardonic, faintly quizzical look in his dark, trimly moustached face, which acquaintances were inclined to describe as "handsome, but saturnine." His little jet-points of eyes, as he stared across at the next laboratory table, glittered enigmatically. "Well, Ronny," he inquired, in a drawl that rasped, "found it at last?" Ronald Gates peered up from amid a mass of lenses, batteries and wires. His frank, open face widened into a broad smile. His clear blue eyes sparkled. "Yes, by heaven," he confessed, enthusiastically, "I think I've got that devil licked!" Instantly Dunbar was at his side. "Like hell you have!" he doubted. At the same time, from the opposite end of the great laboratory, a feminine voice broke out, "Oh, good, Ronald, I knew you'd do it!" And the tall form of Eleanor Firth, its youthful attractiveness scarcely dimmed by the stained rubber gloves and apron she was wearing, came gliding toward the men. Her big golden-brown eyes blazed with admiration as she turned them full upon Gates. "I knew it, Ronald--I knew you simply had to!" To an onlooker, the relationship of the men and the girl would have been crystal-clear. Dunbar's manner, as he glared at Gates, was dagger-sharp; Gates had no eyes for Dunbar at all; while both men regarded the young lady with softening glances that were eloquent. Why was it, Dunbar reflected, that they had all taken to staying in overtime here at their place of employment, the laboratory of the Merlin Research Institute? True, Gates was all worked up about that damnable invention of his! And Eleanor--wasn't it just like a woman to find an excuse to stay when she knew Gates would be there? As for himself--if he didn't want to be shoved out of the picture, he had no choice but to work on after hours! "Yes, by glory! I think I've done the trick!" Gates was exclaiming. "If you folk'll just come with me to the roof, I'll demonstrate!" He took up a black instrument resembling a pair of opera glasses, except that it was equipped with large red lenses, and was attached by wires to a cluster of minute batteries and radio-like tubes. "What did you say you call the contraption?" asked Dunbar, as Gates started upstairs with his invention. "The Infra-Red Eye." "Why in blazes do you call it that?"