"Is this planet larger or smaller than ours, Mr. Ernol?"

"Larger. It will be a matter of millions of centuries before such
beings as humans are evolved there."

"How do we know these facts?"

As though it were a signal, the entire class, with one accord,
uttered a single word: "Runled!"

And the doctor found his agent's eyes turned, together with those of
every other student in the room, toward the portrait of a highly
intellectual-looking man; it hung in the most conspicuous spot on
the wall.

"We must never forget," continued the man on the platform, "that,
but for the explorations of this man and his space-boat, some eighty
years ago, we should know very little. Can any one tell me why his
explorations have never been repeated?"

Two hands went up. The professor nodded to a girl seated next to the
young fellow whom the doctor now knew as "Ernol." This girl spoke
very clearly: "Because the expedition was extremely costly, and the
commission has never been willing to appropriate enough to duplicate
the work."

"The commission's judgment is, of course, sound," commented the
professor calmly. Then he signaled for a change in the picture,
which had been showing, in rapid succession, glimpses of world after