"It's lucky I'm so used to handling hot stuff that from force of habit I never make close contact with anything at the first touch. That gun carried thousands of volts, with lots of amperage behind them, and if I had had a good hold on it I couldn't have let go. We'll block that game quick enough, though. Thick, dry gloves covered with rubber are all that is necessary. It's a good thing for all of us that you have those fancy condensite handles on your levers, Seaton." "That was how they got Dunark, undoubtedly," said Crane, as he sent a brief message to the girls, assuring them that all was well, as he had been doing at every respite. "But why were we not overcome at the same time?" "They must have had the current tuned to iridium, and had to experiment until they found the right wave for steel," Seaton explained. "I should think our bar would have exploded, with all that current. They must have hit the copper range, too?" Seaton frowned in thought before he answered. "Maybe because it's induced current, and not a steady battery impulse. Anyway, it didn't. Let's go!" "Just a minute," put in Crane. "What are they going to do next, Dick?" "Search me. I'm not used to my new Osnomian mind yet. I recognize things all right after they happen, but I can't seem to figure ahead--it's like a dimly-remembered something that flashes up as soon as mentioned. I get too many and too new ideas at once. I know, though, that the Osnomians have defenses against all these things except this last stunt of the charged guns. That must be the new one that Mardonale stole from Kondal. The defenses are, however, purely Osnomian in character and material. As we haven't got the stuff to set them up as the Osnomians do, we'll have to do it our own way. We may be able to dope out the next one, though. Let's see, what have they given us so far?" "We've got to hand it to them," responded DuQuesne, admiringly. "They're giving us the whole range of wave-lengths, one at a time. They've given us light, both ultra-violet and visible, sound, infra-sound, and electricity--I don't know what's left unless they give us a new kind of X-rays, or Hertzian, or infra-red heat waves, or...." "That's it, heat!" exclaimed Seaton. "They produce heat by means of powerful wave-generators and by setting up heavy induced currents in the armor. They can melt arenak that way." "Do you suppose we can handle the heat with our refrigerators?" asked Crane. "Probably. We have a lot of power, and the new arenak cylinders of our compressors will stand anything. The only trouble will be in cooling the condensers. We'll run as long as we have any water in our tanks, then go dive into the ocean to cool off. We'll try it a whirl, anyway." * * * * *