taggered him for a moment. He could swear
that they recognized him, knew he was staring at them--for every
single pair was alight with intelligence, and Keith fancied he saw
gleams of recognition.

"It must have been a paralyzing ray!" he gasped. "A thing our
scientists've been trying to develop for years.... And that monster
outside knows the secret...." He lifted an arm of the inert figure at
his feet; when he released the grip, it flopped limply back to the
deck again.

"_Keith! Come back, quick!_"

Startled, the commander turned to find Hemingway Bowman at the top of
the connecting ramp, his face distorted with alarm.

"For God's sake, come back quick!" he yelled again. "Down there the
ray might get you!"

With the words, Wells leaped to the ramp and raced to the control
room. He had no sooner made it than he felt again the queer tingle of
the electric charge. He found himself trembling. Bowman's face was
white. His words came stuttering.

"One second later and they'd have got you.... They got Sparks in his
cubby.... You see, the ray doesn't affect us in the control room
because--"

"Because the Gibson insulation that protects the instruments keeps it
out!" Keith finished grimly. "I see!"

Just then a slight jar ran through the submarine. Coincident with it
came a cry from Brown, the helmsman. His arm was pointed at the
teleview.

There they saw the enemy's mighty dirigible of metal was now within
thirty feet of the _NX-1._ It had crept up silently, without warning.
And, spanning the short gulf between them, an arm of webbed metal
craned from the other's huge bow, hooking tightly into the American
submarine's forward hawser holes!

As they took this in, the enemy ship moved away and the arm of metal
tightened. The _NX-1_ shuddered. And, at first slowly, but with ever
increasing speed, she got under way and slid after her captor. They
were being towed away. Kidnaped! Men, submarine and all!

* * * * *

Keith Wells mopped sweat from a hot brow and rapidly reviewed his
weapons. He was sorely restricted. Through an emergency system the
_NX-1_ could be propelled and maneuvered from her control room; but
the torpedo tubes needed local attendance.

"Hemmy, reverse engines," he jerked, himself spinning over a small
wheel. "Let's see if we can out-pull the devil!"

At once they felt the shock of the paralyzing ray, and then the
surging whine of the Edsel electrics pulsed up