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magnetism in the flange. Orthon had complete control over this, | found, for once | nearly lost my balance and he stopped the craft momentarily while | regained it. Then the slow, smooth glide continued until we had reached what | judged to be the halfway position between the top and the bottom of the mother ship. Here the Scout stopped, and the door instantly slid open. | saw a man standing outside on a platform about fifteen feet long and six feet wide. He was holding something that looked like a metal clamp attached to a cable. He was not very tall?l should guess about five feet, five inches?and | noticed that he was of a darker complexion than any of the space people | had seen. He was dressed in a brown flying suit similar in color and style to the one worn by Orthon at our first meeting. Black hair showed from under a dark, beret- type cap. | followed Firkon out of the Scout and Ramu came after me. Orthon was the last to leave. The man in the beret smiled and nodded to each of us as we stepped off the platform, but no words were exchanged. From this platform a flight of about a dozen steps led down to one of the decks of the huge craft. As | was guided down them, | had time to notice that our Scout had stopped just before reaching a junction in the rails down which we had come. One pair of rails continued through the ship, curving downward out of sight. Between them was a dark space which prevented any view of what lay below. The other pair of rails continued straight on from the junction before which the craft was halted, and ran astern to a huge hangar or storage deck in which | could see several identical Scout ships lined up on the rails. ?This is the storage hangar in which the small craft are carried during interplanetary flight,? explained Firkon, stopping momentarily on the step beside me. ?Had we been going on to another planet, our Scout would have stopped at the platform only long enough to let us out. Then it would have passed over the junction and been switched to its place in this large hangar. But because we shall be returning to Earth later, the Scout must be recharged at this platform.? | glanced back and saw that the man on the platform had already slipped the clamp attached to the cable over the flange of the Scout so that it contacted both the flange and the rail beneath. | have no idea how this recharging operation was performed; to me the clamp looked much like a machinist?s large clamp used on Earth. Nor could | see to what the other end of the cable was connected. Perhaps contact between clamp and rail was necessary to complete the circuit or for all | know, it may even have fitted into an unseen connection directly below the rim of the Scout. | did not wish to cause further delay by asking. Although not answering the question in my mind, Firkon did volunteer, ?These smaller craft are incapable of generating their own power to any great extent and make only relatively short trips from their carriers before returning for recharge. They are used for a kind of shuttle service between the large ships and any point of contact or observation, and are always dependent on full recharging from the power plant of the mother ship.? At the bottom of the steps we entered a large control room, rectangular in shape but with rounded corners. This room, | should say, was about thirty-five by forty-