d it do to take just a little peek?"

"I don't know--that's the dickens of it. Maybe none, and then again,
maybe a lot. You see, we don't know who or what we are up against. The
only thing we know is that they've got us beat a hundred ways, and we've
got to act accordingly. We've got to chance it sometime, though, if we
can ever get away, so we might as well do it now. I'll put it on very
short range first, and see what we can see. By the small number of cells
we've got here I'm afraid they've split us up lengthwise, too--so that
instead of having a whole slice of the old watermelon to live in, we've
got only about a sixth of one--shaped about like a piece of restaurant
pie. One thing I can do, though. I'll turn on the communicator receiver
and put it on full coverage--maybe we can hear something useful."

Putting a little power upon the visiray plate, he moved the point of
projection a short distance from their hiding-place, so that the plate
showed a view of the wreckage. The upper half of the vessel was still
intact, the lower half a jumble of sharply-cut fragments. From each of
the larger pieces a brilliant ray of tangible force stretched outward.
Suddenly their receiver sounded behind them, as the high-powered
transmitter in the telegraph room tried to notify headquarters of
their plight.

"_Arcturus_ attacked and cut up being taken tow...."

Rapidly as the message was uttered the transmitter died with a rattle
in the middle of a word, and Nadia looked at Stevens with foreboding in
her eyes.

"They've got something, that's one thing sure, to be able to neutralize
our communicator beams that way," he admitted. "Not so good--we'll have
to play this close to our vests, girl!"

"Are you just trying to cheer me up, or do you really think we have a
chance?" she demanded. "I want to know just where we stand."

"I'm coming clean with you, no kidding. If we can get away, we'll be all
x, because I'll bet a farm that by this time Brandon's got everything
those birds have, and maybe more. They beat us to it, that's all. I'm
kind of afraid, though, that getting away isn't going to be quite as
simple as shooting fish down a well."

* * * * *

Far ahead of them a port opened, a lifeboat shot out at its full power,
and again their receiver tried to burst into sound, but it was a vain
attempt. The sound died before one complete word could be uttered, and
the lifeboat, its power completely ne