heavily into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.

"Now what is your opinion of Krag?"

Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the
window. "He may still have left a message for us."

"What message? Why? Do you mean in this room?--I see no message."

Nightspore's eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old
bottles on one of the shelves and nothing else. Maskull glanced at
him and at the cupboard. Then, without a word, he got up to examine
the bottles.

There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest.
The smaller ones were about eight inches long. All were torpedo-
shaped, but had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand
upright. Two of the smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the
others contained a colourless liquid, and possessed queer-looking,
nozzle-like stoppers that were connected by a thin metal rod with a
catch halfway down the side of the bottle. They were labelled, but
the labels were yellow with age and the writing was nearly
undecipherable. Maskull carried the filled bottles with him to the
table in front of the window, in order to get better light.
Nightspore moved away to make room for him.

He now made out on the larger bottle the words "Solar Back Rays"; and
on the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could
distinguish something like "Arcturian Back Rays."