nd his uniform was streaked with the smoke and
sweat of battle, but the face beneath the grime, and the hands that
reached to embrace and pound the flyer upon the back, could be only
those of one he had known as his captain--Captain Blake.

"You son-of-a-gun!" the shouting figure was repeating. "You damned
Irish son-of-a-gun! A. W. O. L.--but you can't get away with it! Come
on--get in here! I'm needed up above!"

* * * * *

McGuire was struggling to speak from a throat that was suddenly tight
and voiceless. Then--

"Althora," he gasped; "take Althora!" and he motioned toward the girl.
And then he remembered the companion he had left in the room above.
The battle that had flashed so suddenly had blasted from his mind all
other thoughts.

"My God!" he said. "--Sykes! I--must get Sykes!"

He turned to run back to the building, only to stop in consternation
where a huddle of clothing lay beneath the balcony of their prison
room.

It was Sykes--Sykes who had sacrificed himself to make possible the
escape of his friend--and McGuire dropped to his knees to touch the
body that he knew was shattered beyond any hope of life. He raised the
limp burden in his arms and staggered back where more khaki-clad
figures had gathered. Two came quickly out to meet him, and he let
them take the body of his friend.

"_C'est fini!_"--he repeated the words that Sykes had said; "the end
of our little journey!" The arms of Althora were about him as Blake
hurried them into the waiting ship, and the roar of enormous power
marked the rising of this space ship to throw itself again into the
fray.

* * * * *

A small room with a dome of shatter-proof glass; a pilot who sat there
to look in all directions, a control-board beneath his hands. Beside
him on his elevated station was room for Captain Blake, and McGuire
and Althora, too. The ship was climbing swiftly. McGuire saw where
flashing shapes circled and roared in a swelling cloud of smoke and
gas.

Blake spoke sharply to an aide: "General orders! All ships climb to
resume formation!"

An enemy ship was before them: it flashed from nowhere to bear down
with terrific speed. The floor beneath them shook with the jarring of
heavy guns, and McGuire saw the advancing shape bursting with puffs of
smoke, while their own ship shot upward with a sickening twist. A
silver ship was falling!--and another!

"Two more of ours gone,"