AN EIGHTEEN-FOOT DISC of metal, a perfect circle, seemed to have been cut out of the top of the meteor. While he watched, it began turning slowly, ponderously, and started sinking into the meteor. As it sank, Parkinson fancied that it grew transparent, and gradually vanished into nothingness—but he wasn’t sure.
A great pit, eighteen feet wide, but far deeper, lay before him in the very place where, not more than ten minutes before, he had stood. Not a moment too soon had he leaped.
Motionless he stood there, waiting in tense expectation. What would happen next, he had not the least idea, but he couldn’t prevent his imagination from running riot.
He hadn’t long to wait before his watching was rewarded. A few minutes after the pit appeared, he heard a loud, high-pitched whir coming from t
