Captain Dunstan nodded. "That explains why we were able, on this occasion, to approach the meteoric stream without its immediate disappearance. But I cannot understand," he confessed, "how two men could have passed through such an apparatus as you describe, and remain alive."
"Perhaps I can offer a possible explanation," said an officer whose insignia was that of Chief Electrobiologist. "If, as we suspect, this Martian invention is founded on the old and well-known cyclotronic principle, then we have nothing but reciprocal interaction of electric fields and magnetic fields. And these fields, as such, are entirely harmless to living organisms, just as harmless as gravitational fields. Moreover, any static charge carried by the bodies of these men would have been slowly dissipated through the grapple-ray with which they were drawn out of the ore stream."
This explanation appeared to satisfy the captain. "You say," he questioned, addressing Bormon, "that there are other men on Echo—Earthmen being used as slaves?"
"Yes, more than a hundred."
Captain Dunstan's mouth became a fighting, grim line. He gave several swift orders to his officers, who scattered immediately.
Somewhat later, Bormon found his way into the surgery where Calbur lay—not sleeping yet, but resting peacefully.
Assuring himself of this, Bormon, too, let his long frame slump down on a near-by cot—not to sleep, either, but to contemplate pleasantly the wiping-up process soon to take place on Echo, and elsewhere.