Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

"I?" "Yes. You and your friend. And now, may I ask, are you ready to return to your own land?" Tommy stared. "Sure thing," he said, "or rather, I will be in a few minutes." "Thank you. We shall await you in the transmitting room." The Theronian bowed and was gone. "Well, I like that," said Tommy. "He hands me an undeserved compliment and then asks how soon we can beat it. A 'here's your hat, what's your hurry' sort of thing." "It's me they're anxious to be rid of," remarked Frank, shrugging his broad shoulders, "and perhaps it is just as well." "You bet it is!" agreed Tommy enthusiastically, "and I'm in favor of making it good and snappy." He completed his toilet as rapidly as possible and then turned to face the down-hearted Frank. "How do we go? The way we came?" he asked. "No, Tommy. They have closed off the shaft that led from the cavern of the silver dome. They are taking no more chances. It seems that the shaft down which we floated was constructed by the Theronians; not by Leland. They had used it and the gravity disc to transport casual visitors to the surface, who occasionally mixed with our people in order to learn the languages of the upper world and to actually touch and handle the things they were otherwise able to see only through the medium of Silver Dome and the crystal spheres. Further visits to the surface are now forbidden, and we are to be returned by a remarkable process of beam transmission of our disintegrated bodies."