It might be added here that Baren Darl and all his group were more than ready to proceed to Earth and begin the slaughter of its inhabitants. It seems that these investigators have for decals listened most carefully to every radio emanation possible to pick up. This has evidently led them to the edge of complete frenzy--especially those who have been assigned the morning programs, sometimes known as "soap operas" by the Earthlings. Baren Darl inspected the newly created weapons with considerable care and proclaimed them excellent for our purposes. In particular he was impressed with the I.Q. Depressor; the deadly poison, _nark_; and the lepbonic plague carrying fleas. He was convinced that these secret weapons would give our forces that advantage we seek before launching our all out attack upon Earth. Acting on Darl's suggestions, we avoided the more heavily populated areas of Earth and landed our Spacecruiser in a mountainous area of the planet known as Kentucky, a sub-division of the United States of America, one of the more advanced Earth nations. Our plans did not work out exactly as expected. * * * * * Keeping well in mind the need for secrecy, we made every attempt to land the Spacecruiser without detection. We settled in a small valley near a stream and immediately sent out scouts to determine if there was any sign that our craft had been sighted in descent. Evidently, the population of the vicinity was so small that our plans were successful. Our patrols reported only one small group of Earthlings in the immediate area. Deciding to test the new weapons on this gathering, we disembarked a force of a dozen warriors, all disguised as Earthlings and with myself as commander and Baren Darl as our technical advisor. "We must keep our senses alert for Sam Spade, Superman and the Lone Ranger," Baren Darl said nervously, peering around among the strange exotic trees and other vegetation that grows on Earth. I was somewhat surprised at his tone and obvious unease. "Who?" I asked. "What?" "Three Terran warriors of amazing ability and viciousness," he told me. "I have been gathering reports of their activities from the radio for some time. They seem to have clairvoyant minds; one or the other of them almost invariably appears on the scene of violence." I said impatiently, "Without doubt, our weapons would mean the end of these warriors." I did not share his belief that any Earthling warriors might be our equals or superiors, but to remain on the cautious side, I immediately ordered that the Elect-no be switched on. This weapon, one of the several designed for the Earth campaign, as your Omnipotence is undoubtedly aware, is so constructed as to prevent the use of any internal combustion engine within a dozen miles of the Elect-no. In this case, no aircraft, nor landcraft, utilizing internal combustion, could enter our zone.