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“Is its speed of revolution too great?”

“Not at all. The days are nearly three hours long: annoying till you get used to it, but nothing like the inferior asteroids of the Mars Company where days and nights are less than ten minutes in duration.”

“Well, is it barren, then? No minerals of value? No vegetation?”

“The spectroscope shows plenty of metals, including heavy radium deposits. The vegetation is as luxuriant as that of semi-tropic Earth.”

“Then why in the name of Betelguese,” said Harley, exasperated, “won’t you sell the place to me? It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, and what I’d despaired of finding at my price.”

“I’m forbidden to tell why it isn’t for sale,” said the executive, starting to float off. “It might hurt our business, reputation if the truth about that bit of our celestial properties became widely known–Oh, disintegrate it all! Why wasn’t the thing erased from the chart weeks ago!”

“Wait a minute.” Harley caught his arm and detained him. “You’ve gone too far to back out now. I’m too eager to find some such place as your Z-40 to be thrown off the subject like a child. Why isn’t it for sale?”

The man tightened his lips as though to refuse to answer, then shrugged.

“I’ll tell you,” he said at last. “But I beg of you to keep it confidential. If some of our investors on neighboring asteroids ever found out about the peril adjoining them on Z-40, they’d probably insist on having their money back.”

He led the way to a more secluded spot under the big dome, and spoke in a low tone, with many a glance over his shoulder to see if anyone were within earshot.

“Z-40 is an exceptionally fine bit of property. It is commodious; about twenty miles in diameter. Its internal heat is such that it has a delightful climate in spite of the extreme rarity of atmosphere common to even the best of asteroids. It has a small lake; in fact it has about everything a man could want. Yet, as I said, it is uninhabitable.”

His voice sank still lower.

“You see, sir, there’s already a tenant on that sphere, a tenant that was in possession long before the Celestial Developments Company was organized. And it’s a tenant that can’t be bought off or reasoned with. It’s some sort of beast, powerful, ferocious, that makes it certain death for a man to try to land there.”

“A beast?” echoed Harley. “What kind of a beast?”

“We don’t know. In fact we hardly even know what it looks like. But from what little has been seen of it, it’s clear that it is like no other specimen known to universal science. It’s something enormous, some freak of animal creation that seems invulnerable to man’s smaller weapons. And that is why we can’t offer the place for sale. It would be suicide for anyone to try to make a home there.”

” Has anyone ever tried it?” asked Harley. “Any competent adventurer, I mean?”

“Yes. Twice we sold Z-40 before we realized that there was something terribly wrong with it. Both buyers were hardy, intrepid men. The first was never heard of after thirty-six hours on the asteroid. The second man managed to escape in his Blinco Dart, and came back to Earth to tell of a vast creature that had attacked him during one of the three-hour nights. His hair was white from the sight of it, and he’s still in a sanitarium, slowly recovering from the nervous shock.”

Harley frowned thoughtfully. “If this thing is more than a match for one man, why don’t you send an armed band with heavy atomic guns and clear the asteroid by main force?”

“My dear sir, don’t you suppose we’ve tried that? Twice we sent expensive expeditions to Z-40 to blow the animal off the face of the sphere, but neither expedition was able to find the thing, whatever it is. Possibly it has intelligence enough to hide if faced by overwhelming force. When the second expedition failed, we gave it up. Poor business to go further. Already, Z-40 has cost us more than we could clear from the sale of half a dozen planetoids.”