close-mouthed crew. Hendricks always heldthat the group of things which so nearly caused the deaths of all of ushad wandered into our portion of Universe from some part of space beyondthe fringe of our knowledge.
* * * * *
But the same source which supplied one brood may supply another.Evidently, from young Clippen's report, this thing has happened. Andsince starting this account, I have determined why the powers that beare willing now to have the knowledge made public. The new silicidecoating with which all space ships have been covered, is proof againstall electrical action. That it is smoother and reduces friction, is, inmy opinion, no more than a rather halty explanation. It is, in reality,the decidedly belated scientific answer to a question raised back in thehey-day of the _Ertak_, and my own youth.
That was many, many years ago, as the crabbed, uncertain writing onthese pages proves.
And now, rather thankfully, I am about to place the last of these pagesunder the curious weight which has held the others in place as I havewritten. That irregular bit of metal from the hull of the _Ertak_, sodeeply pitted on the one side, where the hungry things had sapped ourprecious strength.
"Electites," the scientists have dubbed these strange crescent-shapedthings, young Clippen said. "Electites!" Something new under the sun!
New to this generation, perhaps, but not to old John Hanson.
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