image of the Jovian globe. Brandon
instantly shifted into that one channel the entire power of his attack;
steadying the controls to bring the sphere of the Jovians into the
sharpest possible focus, knowing that he had found the open slit and
that through it there was pouring upon the enemy the full power of his
terrible weapon.

In the fraction of a second before the Jovians could detect the attack
and close the slit, he saw a portion of the wall of their vessel flare
into white heat and literally explode outward in puffs and gouts of
flaming, molten metal and of incandescent gases. But the thrust, savage
as it was, had not been fatal and the enemy countered instantly. Now
that the crushing force of the full-coverage attack was lessened for a
moment, through another slit there poured a beam of energy equal to the
Terrestrials' own--a beam of such intense power that the outer screen
of the _Sirius_ flared from red through the spectrum, to and beyond the
violet, and went black in less than a second, and the inner screen had
almost gone down before Brandon's lightning hands could restore the
complete coverage that so effectively blanketed the forces of the enemy.

"Well, we're back to the _status quo_," announced Brandon, calmly. "It's
a good gag they didn't have time to locate our working slit--if they had
pushed that stuff through our open channel, we'd have gotten frizzled up
some around the edges. As it was, we got the edge on that exchange--take
it from your Uncle Dudley, Quince, that bird knows that he's been
nudged!"

* * * * *

Again he searched the entire band for an opening, but could find none.
The enemy had apparently retired into a tightly closed shell of energy.
The small vessel no longer struggled, nor even moved, but was merely
resisting passively.

"Not an open channel, not even one for him to work through--he can't
wiggle. Well, that won't get him anything. We're so much bigger than
he is, that we can outlast him and will get him some time, since he's
bound to run out of power before we do. I don't believe he can receive
anything, sealed up as he is, and he can't have accumulators enough more
efficient than ours to make up the difference, can he, Quince?"

"It is quite possible. For instance, although we have never heard of any
progress being made along such lines, it has been pointed out repeatedly
that synthesis of a radio-active element of very high atomic weight