I explained to Mercer that Tao might at any time send an expedition to invade the Light Country. "How about that car we came from earth in?" he suggested. "He could sail over in that, couldn't he--if he should want to come over here?" I knew that was not feasible. In the outer realms of space the balancing attractions of the different heavenly bodies made it easy enough to head in any specified direction; but for travel over a planet's surface it was quite impractical. Its rise and fall could be perfectly governed; but when it was directed laterally the case was very different. Just where it would go could not be determined with enough exactness. Miela turned back to us from her consultation with Lua. "In the mountains, high up and far beyond the Valley of the Sun," she said, "lies a secret place known only to our women. Our mother says that she and I and Anina can spread the news among our virgins to gather there to-morrow at the time of sleep. Only to those we know we can trust will we speak--and they will have no men to whom to tell our plans. To-morrow they will gather up there in the clouds, among the crags, unseen by prying eyes. And you and our--our friend Ollie"--she smiled as she used the nickname by which he had asked her to call him--"you two we will take there by the method you have told us. We will arrange, up there in secret, what it is we are to do to help our world and yours." This, in effect, was our immediate plan of procedure. Nearly all the next day Mercer and I stayed about the house, while the three women went through the city quietly, calling forth all those they could reach to our conclave in the mountains. They returned some time after midday. Miela came first, alighting with a swift, triumphant swoop upon the roof where Mercer and I were sitting. One glance at her face told me she had been successful. "They will come, my husband," she announced. "And they are ready and eager, all of them, to do what they can." Anina and Lua brought the same news. When we were all together again Mercer and I took them to the garden behind the house and showed them what we had done while they were away. It was my plan to have the girls carry Mercer and me through the air with them. For that purpose we had built a platform of bamboo, which now lay ready in the garden. Miela clapped her hands at sight of it. "That is perfect, my husband. No difficulty will there be in taking you with us now." The platform was six feet wide by ten long. It rested upon a frame with two poles of bamboo some forty feet in length running lengthwise along its edges. These two poles thus projected in front and back of the platform fifteen feet each way. Running under them crosswise at intervals were other, shorter bamboo lengths which projected out the sides a few feet to form handles. There were ten of them on a side at intervals of four feet.