The observers could see very little. A fiercely flowing river, still lower, was tumbling into a boiling pit. The plateau was broken and pitted with dark round areas like cave-mouths. There were moving human figures on the plateau! The plane swept on, came back, and descended to what they claimed was minus fifteen hundred feet, the lowest level any plane had yet attained. Through a cloud rift the observers saw human figures clearly. A brief glimpse. There seemed hundreds, perhaps a thousand figures. Polly and her father were at home when the news came. Polly, all that morning, was silent. Thoughts seemed struggling to reach her. Once she leaped to her feet, stood trembling. “Father! I hear--I feel words from Nereid! Arturo--Jeff--they’re safe--still alive!” She knew it. And then her mind rang with other words: “_Stop! Don’t let them attack us! Stop them!_” It was hardly half an hour later when the newscasters had another report. Two planes had gone back with the discoverer to verify the existence of this enemy. The figures were still to be seen down there. The planes had dropped bombs--they believed, with effect. They had had a brief, telescopic glimpse. The white-skinned people had scattered. Some lay still; many were seen running--small, white-skinned people. It was plain to Polly. These were people like Nereid. And Nereid’s thoughts were saying: “_Stop them! Don’t let them attack us!_” Dr. Plantet talked with the authorities. A week went by. Planes watched this enemy, but no more bombs were dropped. Polly strove for further connection with Nereid, but could not establish it. On October 8 the Gians were discovered. “Gray-skinned people,” the reports said, “with apparatus of metal.” They were seen less clearly and more briefly than the Middge, and were farther to the south. Dr. Plantet and Polly identified it as being fairly near the Zero-height peak which was Nereid’s island. The Gians were seen in a tumbled region which since has been termed the Southwest Mountains of the Moon. The planes circled in the neighborhood for an hour, awaiting a rift in the concealing cloud-banks. But the gray-skinned figures were gone--withdrawn probably into the myriad caverns of the region. And the Middge, too, seemed now to have retreated, hiding down there in the caves and passages which were numerous in all this area of the Micronesian Lowlands. * * * * * October 15 came. The authorities were studying the region. Plans for attack were being made, volunteer armies were being organized, and armed planes were being equipped. There was much scientific discussion over changes that would be necessary in wing areas, curvatures, angles of incidence for flying in the greater air-pressures of the Sub-zero levels.