Then there came a throaty rumbling, followed by a buzzing as of a multitude of bees; after which, to the hearers' incredulous amazement, these words rasped forth, in grossly accented yet quite recognizable English, "Welcome, my guests! Welcome to our web!" * * * * * The three humans stared at one another, their lips agape. Had they all gone crazy? The red eyes of the beast gave a wicked twinkle. Somehow, with their triangular scarlet pupils, they seemed more diabolical than ever. "Come, come, do you not return my greeting?" buzzed the creature; while a grating noise, which may have been laughter, came from his companions. "How--how in thunder do you come to speak English?" sputtered Gates, feeling that he was but living through a nightmare from which he would soon awaken. Again that grating noise, like harsh laughter. "English--pooh! It is not hard to learn. It is not as if it were an advanced language," proceeded Red-Hood. "But you earthlings, with your minor-planetary minds, may not understand. Do you want me to explain?" "Why not?" gasped Gates. But had he not steadied himself barely in time, he might have fallen off the platform. "Well, it is all so very simple," went on the monster. "When arriving here, we covered ourselves with the powder Amvol-Amvol, which makes us invisible, or almost so. We then roamed your planet for many days, unseen by you, observing your habits, and listening to your conversations. Not being slow-witted like earth denizens, we were able to pick up the meaning of the words, which we held in our memories--memories that register everything, and never forget. After all, it is not for nothing that we are gifted with Saturnian intellects." "Saturnian?" demanded Dunbar. "Yes, that is the word you would use, is it not? We come from the planet Olar-olargulu, the ringed one." The hearers remained silent. After all, it had been evident from the first that the strangers had not been born on earth! "This is our first experience with the inferior globules," continued the speaker, in a voice like a growl. "We have never before spoken with any of you Nignigs, or lesser peoples. But of late centuries we of Saturn have become too numerous, even for the great size of our native planet. So we have been looking for provinces to colonize. For various reasons, we have chosen the earth. As for Mars--it is too small to bother with. Jupiter, unfortunately, is too powerfully defended by its three-footed dwarfs. And Venus is too near the sun for comfort. So we are prepared to take over the earth." "Take over--the earth?" demanded the three humans, in one voice. "What else? After all, are we not entitled to it, by virtue of our superior intelligence?" * * * * * His hearers could merely stare in bewildered silence.