The Tall One stepped from behind the shattered Melt Master. He held a gun in his hand.
       "All right, Swift," he blustered, "this is the end of the road for you. Move over to the passage and go through. No tricks! You'll get a dose of lead poisoning if you try to pull a fast one."
       The man moved warily around the pit into the center of the cave. The snub nose of his pistol pointed directly at Tom.
       "Oh, no you don't!" came a voice from above.
       Bud! With Alvarez he had reached the opening in the roof on the outside.
       Picking up a wrench from the Brungarian hoist equipment, Bud hurled it down at the Tall One.
       The wrench struck the gun a heavy blow. It clattered to the floor.
       The Tall One spun around, a terrified look on his face. He ran toward the tunnel.
       As Tom relaxed, Bud called down, "How's that for pitching a strike? Think I'll make the big leagues?"
       "You sure put that guy out." Tom chuckled. "And in the clutch too."
       Bud became serious. "Are you going to follow him, Tom, or should we both?"
       "Neither, Bud. Let him go. He's probably headed for the slope where the villagers are. They'll grab him when he barges outside. We have more important work to do."
       A shadow darkened the cave as the Sky Queen maneuvered into position overhead. A network of ropes descended from the craft at the end of a cable. Tom deftly fitted the ropes around the Melt Master, which was then hoisted clear of the cave and deposited on the ground near the opening.
       Next, the crew of the Flying Lab lowered the X-raser. The ground crew guided it through the roof to the floor of the cave.
       The X-raser looked like a combined rifle and telescope. It worked on the same principle as a laser, hurling forth waves of radiation in a tightly condensed beam of incredible energy. But since it used X rays rather than light rays, it was much more powerful than a laser.
       Tom carried the X-raser to the edge of the pit. He pointed the muzzle downward, then pressed a button and sent an intense beam to penetrate the ice about two feet from the side of the frozen mastodon.
       Chips of ice flew upward in a spray. The beam pierced straight to the bottom. Keeping the X-raser focused, Tom waked around the top of the pit, sawing out an oblong pattern until he had the mastodon freed from the sides of the pit in a huge block of ice. Then he turned off the X-raser.
       Bud and Alvarez climbed down a rope ladder that had been suspended from the Sky Queen.
       Tom said, "I've freed the beast fore and aft and at the sides without melting the ice. Now I'll do the same thing at the bottom, and it'll be ready for transport."
       Bud nodded approval. "No fear of an avalanche now. The rest of the ice on this mountain can stay solid for another eon."
       A massive hook fixed to a Tomasite cable was lowered from the Sky Queen. From the hook dangled six huge iron bands with long, sharp cleats at the ends.
       "Bud took the iron bands and fixed them at intervals across the top of the ice mass. Twisting the screws with a wrench, he forced the bar ends inward, driving the cleats into the frozen object.
       "This will be like tongs lifting a cake of ice," he said, and then grinned. "I'll bet this is the biggest chunk man has ever carried."
       Alvarez led Tom around the outside of the mountain to the passage at the base of the pit. They went through and reached the bottom of the ice column. Tom used his X-raser to slice through it, on a plane parallel to the floor below the mastodon. Then he and Alvarez dashed out of the passage, back up to the cave.
       "The ice core is loose, Bud," said Tom as he hurried over to the pit.
       "Roger," Bud replied. "All's ready for action on this end, too."
       Over his pencil radio, Tom gave the message "Haul away!" to the man in the Sky Queen. A giant winch began to exert force upward. The cable tightened and strained.
       The ice core was lifted slowly from the pit floor. Then it was upended and brought from the cave through the open roof. It just cleared the sides.
       "That is magnifico!" Alvarez exclaimed.


       Tom was watching with bated breath, while Bud said, "It's a gorgeous specimen, Tom. I'm glad you didn't try the Transmittaton on it."
       When the core reached the Sky Queen, automatic grapples drew a protective Tomasite covering over it. As soon as the burden was secured to the belly of the giant plane, the pilot headed for the United States.
       Bud watched the Sky Queen disappear into the distance. "Tom, I hope that ice won't melt. Could be they'll have a lot of spoiled mastodon on their hands when they land."
       Tom shook his head. "Don't worry, Bud. The temperature up there is way below freezing."
       When Tom, Alvarez, and Bud reached the hacienda, they found Burkart waiting for them.
       "Congratulations," the manager said to Tom. "You plan worked. We nabbed fourteen Brungarians. They're being held until the federal police get here from Santiago."
       "If you caught fourteen Brungarians," Bud pointed out, "one is still at large."
       After checking, they realized that the Tall One had escaped. "I hoped," said Tom, "that the villagers would get him when he ran out of the cave. He must have slipped past during that free-for-all on the mountainside."
       Everyone at the hacienda was excited and crowded around to congratulate the young scientist. Finally Tom waved them away.
       Bud remarked, "It's only four o'clock. What'll we do until sundown?"
       "Eat, then sleep," Tom replied. "We solved the mastodon problem in record time. And Cliff Culbertson says the Racodio is operational. So we can spare a few hours before we tackle the P-E problem."
       They went to sleep and rose feeling fit. Darkness had already fallen.
       "Now for the transmittaton experiment," Bud said.
       Tom shook his head. "Bud, I have no idea whether Tomasite is strong enough to withstand the radiation of a ghost in the receiving tank. Also, I've put in a small box to transmit radiation to our guest if it starts to lose its life support. I'd rather be in the control room alone."
       "You mean you want a confidential talk with the ghost? Not a chance, genius boy. I intend to horn in on this little conversation."
       Bud spoke flippantly, but Tom could see that he was determined to share the risk.
       "Okay," Tom agreed.
       They went to the control room and donned antiradiation suits and helmets with dark eye panels to shield them. Tom radioed the Swift space station, which gave him a fix on the area of the moon where the galaxy ghosts had been detected.
       Tensely Tom set the Transmittaton at the proper angle. Bud watched without saying anything. Chow and the lab crew followed the experiment on intercom TV in the outer lab.
       "Brace yourself, Bud," Tom advised. "Here goes!" He pressed the button hard.
       A sharp crackling noise began. Growing louder, it turned into a roar that thundered through the lab. Then the noise died away.
       "There's a strange patch of mist in the receiving tank!" Bud cried. "It's a globule just like those we saw in space! Tom, you've trapped a galaxy ghost!"


       One by one Tom pressed the buttons opening smaller boxes he had put inside the big tank. Water squirted from the first––and instantly evaporated. Then a plant was exposed to the ghost. It withered. A cricket died in the radiation. A piece of fur disintegrated. A large bone turned into a heap of powder.
       Tom removed the boxes and surveyed the results grimly. "The P-E is lethal to life on earth. But the Tomasite is holding firm against its radiation. We have a chance to talk to the creature."
       The dials on the receiving tank revealed a steady pulsating wave pattern. Tom fed it into a computer, which reported the pattern was a form of communication that could be analyzed and translated by the Racodio.
       Tom programmed the wavelength into the translation device, and sent a message into the receiving tank.
       "Can you understand me?"
       The ghost pulsated rhythmically. Yes. Why are you holding me?
       "We hope," Tom replied, "that you will carry a message to your companions on the moon. They are lethal to life on earth."
       Tom paused to let the creature digest his message, then sprang the question, "Who are you?"
       From galaxy Andromeda. Many of us. We must find a new home.
       "Why have you come to our moon?" Tom asked.
       We are looking for a spot in your solar system to suit us. None satisfactory so far. Plan to descend to your planet in two earth days.
       "But you will kill every living thing on our globe," Tom protested. "You must not come!"
       Willing to do as you request. Release me. I will rejoin companions from Andromeda. I will warn them not to invade earth.
       Tom started to say "What a relief––" when a red alarm signal flashed near the Transmittaton.
       "Something's wrong in the outer lab," Bud stated. "I'll see what it is."
       Before he could move, the door banged against the wall violently. Chow appeared, open-mouthed with astonishment. Behind him came the Tall One, a mask over his nose and mouth. He was holding a gun in Chow's back.
       "Hand over the ghost!" the Tall One snarled at Tom. "Otherwise, your friend here will get hurt!"