same liquid language and the five of them started off down the trail. Two of the women walked in front of Joe and two followed behind giving every indication that he was a captive.

They had gone about 500 yards when they came to a small vehicle which sat in a clearing beside the trail. Joe knew then that he would have walked right into them whether he had stopped to help the trapped animal or not and so he felt pleased that he had done at least one thing right that day. They entered the ship and Joe noted a look of hatred in the eyes of one of the four. He braced himself for the acceleration forces that would accompany the take-off. The expected forces never came and he was astounded as the ship rose vertically to altitude and then shot into level flight with no sound of rocket engines. It almost seemed as though these people had discovered the secret of anti-gravity. Joe noticed that there was no chatter being exchanged among the four women and he began to wonder if they might be members of a military or police group since they seemed to be so serious. He still did not know what was going on, or how he had gotten where he was, but he was glad that he had not been captured by the dreaded outspacers for they would surely have killed him in space had they found him.

After about ten minutes of flight a modern city came into view and the small craft headed directly for one of the buildings and landed on a roof-top area designed for that purpose. Joe was taken to a room which looked more like an apartment than a prison cell, but since he was unable to open the door through which he had entered, he left that he was yet a captive. He had just sat down and was unconsciously in the process of smoothing out his skirt when the door opened and a marvelously attractive girl came in. She wore a floor length gown drapped in such a way that it reminded Joe of the styles worn by Grecian women centuries ago. The material of her dress flowed as she approached and it appeared to be as filmy as chiffon and it seemed to change color with every movement, yet it was non-transparent and that fact seemed to contradict everything that he knew about ultra-sheer fabrics. Joe was stunned when he heard her speak in perfect English. "Hello," she said, "my name is Rhena." Joe recovered his composure enough to mumble a greeting and got as far as saying, “my name is Joe An-", when he choked up and before he could finish his last name, Rhena spoke again. "Don't be nervous, you

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