el's wildly turbulent bottom lay the submarine,
now apparently trying to escape, but held fast by the tractor rays of
the space-ship; at its top, smothered almost to the point of
invisibility by billowing masses of steam, hung poised the Nevian
cruiser.

As the atmosphere had grown thinner and thinner with increasing altitude
Costigan had regulated his velocity accordingly, keeping the outer shell
of the vessel at the highest temperature consistent with safety. Now
beyond measurable atmospheric pressure, the shell cooled rapidly and he
applied full touring acceleration. At an appalling and constantly
increasing speed the miniature space-ship shot away from the strange,
red planet; and smaller and smaller upon the plate became its picture.
Long since the great vessel of the void had plunged beneath the surface
of the sea, more closely to come to grips with the vessel of the fishes;
for a long time nothing of the battle had been visible save immense
clouds of steam, blanketing hundreds of square miles of the ocean's
surface. But just before the picture became too small to reveal details
a few tiny dark spots appeared above the banks of cloud, now brilliantly
illuminated by the rays of the rising sun--dots which might have been
fragments of either vessel, blown bodily from the depths of the ocean
and, riven asunder, hurled high into the air by the incredible forces at
the command of the other.

Nevia a tiny moon and the fierce blue sun rapidly growing smaller in the
distance, Costigan swung his visiray beam into the line of travel and
turned to his companions.

"Well, we're off," he said, scowling. "I hope it was Nerado that got
blown up back there, but I'm afraid it wasn't. He whipped two of those
submarines that we know of, and probably half their fleet besides.
There's no particular reason why that one should be able to take him, so
it's my idea that we should get ready for great gobs of trouble.

"They'll chase us, of course; and I'm afraid that with their immense
power, they'll catch us."

"But what can we do, Conway?" asked Clio.

"Several things," he grinned. "I managed to get quite a lot of dope on
that paralyzing ray and some of their other stuff, and we can install
the necessary equipment in our suits easily enough."

They removed their armor, and Costigan explained in detail the changes
which must be made in the Triplanetary field generators. All three set
vigorously to work--the two officers deftly and