but now, at the mention
of his name, they all looked at him as if their collective gaze had
been drawn to him by some unknown attractive force.

"It's like fighting ghosts," MacMaine said in a hushed voice. For the
first time, he felt a feeling of awe that was almost akin to fear. What
had he done?

In another sense, that same question was in the mind of the Kerothi.

"Have you any notion at all what they are doing or how they are doing
it?" asked Tallis gently.

"None," MacMaine answered truthfully. "None at all, I swear to you."

"They don't even behave like Earthmen," said the fourth Kerothi, a
thick-necked officer named Ossif. "They not only outfight us, they
outthink us at every turn. Is it possible, General MacMaine, that the
Earthmen have allies of another race, a race of intelligent beings that
we don't know of?" He left unsaid the added implication: "_And that
you have neglected to tell us about?_"

"Again," said MacMaine, "I swear to you that I know nothing of any
third intelligent race in the galaxy."

"If there were such allies," Tallis said, "isn't it odd that they
should wait so long to aid their friends?"

"No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop superweapons
that we cannot understand, much less fight against," Hokotan said, with
a touch of anger.

"Not 'superweapons'," MacMaine corrected almost absently. "All they
have is a method of making their biggest ships indetectable until
they're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on our
detectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same
type as they've always used, I believe."

"All right, then," Hokotan said, his voice showing more anger. "One
weapon or whatever you want to call it. Practical invisibility. But
that's enough. An invisible man with a knife is more deadly than a
dozen ordinary men with modern armament. Are you sure you know nothing
of this, General MacMaine?"

Before MacMaine could answer, Tallis said, "Don't be ridiculous,
Hokotan! If he had known that such a weapon existed, would he have been
fool enough to leave his people? With that secret, they stand a good
chance of beating us in less than half the time it took us to wipe out
their fleet--or, rather, to wipe out as much of it as we did."

"They got a new fleet somewhere," said young Loopat, almost to himself.

* * * * *

Tallis ignored him. "If MacMaine deserted his former alleg