For reasons at first not clear the news that Pollenport had established communication with the Earth had an electrifying effect upon the Antigeosians. Almost overnight the picture changed and all apathy in regard to the building of the spaceship abruptly dispersed.
Until then the construction of the enormous machine had been largely the concern of a few score enthusiasts, planning, designing and working in their own time, but within a week of the receipt of Sanderlake’s first message the whole project was put on a different footing. Swarms of grey-clad workers arrived on the site and arc-lamps were introduced so that they could work by night as well as by day, and Pollenport knew enough about the organisation of Antigean society to realise that this could only mean that the highest counci
