principle was
used. The inner globe was movable within the outer globe, or rind. If
for any reason the space ship listed in one direction or the other, the
inner globe, while it rose and fell naturally, remained upright, its
floor always level so that, the gyroscope controlling the whole, the
central, levitating, ray would always, must always, as it proved, point
downward.

Try as they might, the partners could not see how the Three manipulated
the ray. They guessed that there were many buttons on the table at which
they sat. The table itself was not an ordinary table. What might have
been called a fifth leg, squarely under the center of the table, was
about three feet square. Through this, Jeter guessed, ran the wires by
which they controlled all their activities, machinery to operate which
had been installed under the floor in the unseen lower half of the inner
globe.

They knew that must remain forever a secret from them.

There was a sudden stir among the Three. Jeter and Eyer turned aside for
a moment to peer down upon New York City. They held their breath with
horror as they saw the smoking devastation which must have buried
thousands of people. The wrecking had been all but complete. Only the
finest buildings still stood. Jeter wondered why the falling back of the
shattered buildings had not shaken down those which the Sitsumi crowd
had not wished to destroy. The repeated shocks must almost have shaken
Manhattan Island on its foundations.

They saw what had caused the sudden stiffening of the Three. Sitsumi,
busily engaged at something else nearby, quietly approached the Three.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Rescue planes," said Wang Li. "New York City sends six fliers to rescue
Jeter and Eyer. New planes. They'll reach us, Sitsumi. We should have
thought to destroy all dangerous air ports. A fatal oversight!"

Sitsumi's eyes were grave. He looked at each of the Three in turn.

"God!" said Jeter's whispering lips. "If we could read their minds! If
only we could guess what it is they fear, we'd have the secret by which
we might destroy them."

"They're vulnerable," said Eyer, "but how?"

"Watch!" said Jeter. "Listen! And here's to those six unknowns coming up
to, maybe, get the same dose we're due for! We were closely watched. New
York City knows exactly where we vanished in the sky. Those six planes
are aiming at us--at a spot in the stratosphere they can't see. And yet,
why should Sitsumi and the Three