did not repeat the alternative. Remembering Kress, Jeter and
Eyer did not need to ask him. There was but one alternative--death--a
particularly horrible one. That Sitsumi and the Three would not hesitate
was amply proved. Already they were guilty of the death of thousands.
They were in deadly earnest with their scheme for a world government.

Jeter and Eyer were kept shackled together, and were, in addition,
chained to the floor of the main room of the white globe with leg irons.
Their keys were in the hands of Naka, whose hatred of Jeter for hitting
him on the jaw was so malevolent it fairly glowed from his eyes like
sparks shot forth.

Food was brought them when asked for. It wasn't easy to partake of it,
because their manacled hands had to be moved together, which made it
extremely awkward.

Jeter and Eyer set themselves the task of trying to figure some way out
in the twenty-four hours of life still left them if they failed. That
Hadley, down in New York City, and all the best minds who were
cooperating with Jeter and Eyer in their mad effort to avert world
catastrophe, would make every effort to come to their assistance by
sending up the planes which must even now be nearing completion, they
hadn't the slightest doubt.

Would they arrive in time? Even if they did, was there anything they
could possibly do to save themselves? Surely this space ship must be
vulnerable. Else why did it climb so high into the stratosphere? It was
far beyond the reach of ordinary planes. High trajectory projectiles had
slight chance of hitting it, even if it were visible. What then was its
vulnerability, which this hiding seemed to indicate? They must know
within twenty-four hours.

So they sat side by side, watching events unfold. The Three talked
mandarin. Eyer, for all his levity, was a man of unusual attainments. He
understood mandarin, for one thing--a fact which even Jeter did not know
at first. The Chinese never seemed even to consider that either of them
might know the tongue. Chinese seldom found foreigners who did
comprehend them. In only so much were The Three in the least bit
careless.

Eyer strained his ears to hear everything which passed between Sitsumi
and the Three. Both men listened to any chance words in English or
French on the part of all hands within the globe which might give them a
hint.

And in those twenty-four hours the sky-scientists learned much.

* * * * *

They co