f the greater deeps and were
launching it in a veritable storm against the Terrestrial visitor.

"Those?" asked Rodebush, calmly. The detonating balls of destruction
were literally annihilating even the atmosphere beyond the polycyclic
screen, but that barrier was scarcely affected.

"No, that," pointing out a hemispherical dome which, redly translucent,
surrounded a group of buildings towering high above their neighbors.
"Neither those high towers nor those screens were there the last time I
was in this town. They're stalling for time down there, that's all those
fireballs are for. Good sign, too--maybe they aren't ready for us yet.
If not, you'd better take 'em while the taking's good; and if they _are_
ready for us, we'd better get out of here while we're all in one piece."

And in fact Nerado had been in touch with the scientists of his city;
had been instructing them in the construction of converters and
generators of such weight and power that they could crush even the
defenses of the super-ship. They were not, however, quite done; the
entirely unsuspected possibilities of speed inherent in absolute
inertialessness had not entered into Nerado's calculations.

"Better drop a few cans down on that dome, fellows, before they make
trouble for us," suggested Rodebush to his gunners.

"We can't," came Adlington's instant reply. "We've been trying it, but
that's a polycyclic screen. Can you drill it? If you can, I've got a
real bomb here--that special we built--that will do the trick if you can
protect it from their beams until it gets down into the water."

"I'll try it," Cleveland answered, at a nod from the physicist. "I
couldn't drill Nerado's polycyclics, but I couldn't use any momentum on
him. Couldn't ram him--he fell back with my thrust. But that screen down
there can't back off, so maybe I can work on it. Get your special ready,
and hang on, everybody!"

The _Boise_ looped upward, and from an altitude of miles dove downward
through a storm of force-balls, rays, and shells; a dive checked
abruptly as the hollow tube of energy, which was Cleveland's drill,
snarled savagely down ahead of her and struck the shielding hemisphere
with a grinding, lightning-splitting shock. As it struck, backed by all
the enormous momentum of the plunging space-ship and driven by the full
power of her mightiest generators, it bored in, clawing and gouging
viciously through the tissue of that rigid and unyielding barrier of
pure