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Rhadampsicus watched each detail of the flare-up with fascinated attention. Nodalictha dutifully watched with him. But she could not maintain her interest in so purely scientific a phenomenon.

When a thin streamer of pure blue-white jetted upward from the sun’s pole, attaining a speed of six hundred and ninety-two miles per second, Rhadampsicus turned to her with enthusiasm.

“Exactly in the pattern of a flare-up according to Dhokis’ theory!” he exclaimed. “I have always thought he was more nearly right than the modernists. Radiation pressure can build up in a closed system such as the interior of a sun. It can equal the gravitational constant. And obviously it would break loose at the pole.”

Then he saw that Nodalictha’s manner was one of distress. He was instantly concerned.

“What’s the matter, darling?” he asked anxiously. “I didn’t mean to neglect you, my precious one!”

Nodalictha did something that would have scared a human being out of a year’s growth, but was actually the equivalent of an unhappy, stifled sob.