For the first time, McGinnis opened his mouth and said in a dry voice, “I take it, then, that this was the last try to get water into the canals?” “The last try,” Grisby and Potterboy both said, staring down into their cups of coffee. * * * * * For awhile, no one said anything. Then, Grisby, more to himself than to the others, “If only something could have been done about those damned Blotting Pads! They, alone, have apparently ruined Mars; and caused the only intelligent life-form to atrophy into the cone-shaped things you see occasionally writhing in the sand.” McGinnis cleared his throat. “Is it true that no one has been able to capture and analyze a Blotting Pad?” “They’ve been captured, but the minute they are, they crumble to dust; and any liquid or moisture absorbed, remains in the form of a gooey tar--of which you see traces all over the planet. “The only way to keep liquids is to store them in containers lined with deuterium--heavy hydrogen, that being the one material through which they cannot absorb. Of course, at more than ten feet distance, they can’t absorb through anything. When we first arrived, every one thought they would have to walk around in deuterium lined armour; but, for some peculiar reason nobody has been able to figure out, they won’t absorb from men. The Blotting Pads, which resemble lichens only in the vaguest way, average two feet in diameter and can absorb up to a gallon of water, which, almost instantly, is excreted in the form of tar. That’s all that’s known about them. If you look out the window, McGinnis, you’ll see them floating and crawling all over the sand.” McGinnis crossed over to the window and stood watching the green, rubbery disks lying on the sand and hovering a few feet in the thin morning air. He and Potterboy had arrived before dawn and this was his first glimpse of them. “There must be millions of them,” he said. “Yes. How they breed we don’t know. To electrocute them is the only way to kill them. Radiation, poison, or shooting won’t work; and we can’t run around using atomics.” “Oh, well,” said Potterboy, breaking a long silence, “if the project to completely melt the polar ice had been successful, in probably no time, the Blotting Pads would have absorbed all the water in the canals, in spite of the electrocution angle.” Grisby sighed bitterly. “No, it would have worked. The Pads can’t absorb while floating, and the moment they came to rest within the ten foot area bordering either side of the canals, the high tension cables would have done the rest!” McGinnis was peering far to his left. “I take it those are the generating plants?” “They were the generators--I gave orders this morning to start dismantling operations.” “As I understand it,” McGinnis said, “the cables and plants are bordering only two of the canals?”