"As a spaceman and engineer, all of this interests me! Just what is the nature of these spores? How did you manage to get them across to Mars? And"—he looked about the empty streets—"where are the Phobians?"

"You shall learn these things in due time. And, if you are entertaining thoughts of escaping from here," Kueelo said with calm assurance, "you may as well forget it. You will work, Earthman; you will work very hard, in order to stay alive. You'll soon learn why! Later ... you may be of even more use to us."

They entered the car again and soon were speeding away from the city. The shimmering blue surface light began to fade away. They entered a twilight place where the walls were of dull gray stone.

"Where are you taking us now?" Praana asked.

"You shall see! I feel it is best that you understand fully what we have accomplished here, and it is only the beginning. Our plans are far-reaching!"

Far-reaching. Ric thought he knew what that meant, but he remained silent and watchful. A few miles further they entered a region of pallid, purplish vegetation. There were vast patches of it, acres wide, growing from the surface. And they saw the Phobians. Hundreds of these frail, pallid people were working listlessly into the growth, harvesting it, placing it in small fibroid carts to be hauled away.

"You asked about the nature of the spores," Kueelo said to Ric. "Touch it, then. I want you to see for yourself."

Ric examined it curiously. It grew in thick masses close to the stone, almost lichen-like. It was the strangest stuff he had ever seen. It seemed literally to crawl! Carefully he reached out a hand. A faint tingling, almost radioactive, went through his skin.

"Touch it with metal," Kueelo said.

Ric searched his pockets, found a small silver coin. Gingerly he extended it. When the metal was yet a few inches from the fungoid growth, it seemed to be snatched from his fingers! The growth reached swiftly upward at it, and the metal dissolved away. For a three foot radius the growth turned from the pallid purple to blood red ... seemed trying to tear itself from the stone. Ric could even feel a faint heat from it.

So this was Gorak's weapon! This was the stuff he had launched, somehow, upon Mars. It was diabolic ... and Ric could understand, now, how Mars had been devastated in a 

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