lly if it proves
inimical--which to-night's horror would seem to prove?"

Jeter shrugged.

"We'll take such armament as we have. We have several drums of a deadly
volatile gas. We have guns of great power, hurling projectiles of great
velocity; but I feel all of that will be more or less useless. The
intelligence up there--well, it knows everything we know and far more
besides, for do any of us know how to strike at the earth from the
stratosphere? Therefore our only weapons must be our own
intelligence--at least that will be the program for Eyer and me. Later,
when your planes which are yet to be built follow us up the sky, perhaps
they will be better armed. I hope to be able to communicate information
somehow, relative to whatever we find."

Hadley thrust out his hand.

"Good luck," he said simply.

* * * * *

Then he was gone and Jeter and Eyer were dropping swiftly down in the
elevator to the street--to find that the streets of Manhattan had gone
mad. The ban on electric lights had been lifted, and the faces of
fear-ridden men and women were ghastly in the brilliance of thousands of
lights. Traffic accidents were happening on every corner, at every
intersection, and there were all too few police to manage traffic.

However, a motorcycle squad was ready to lead the way through the press
for Eyer and Jeter--two grim-faced men now, who dared not look at each
other, because each feared to show his abysmal fear to the other.

Automobiles raced past on either side of them driven by crazy men and
hysterical women.

"Queensboro Bridge will be packed tight as a drum," said Eyer quietly.

Jeter didn't seem to hear. Eyer talked on softly, unbothered by Jeter's
silence, knowing that Jeter wouldn't hear a word, that his partner had
drawn into himself and was even now, perhaps, visualizing what they
might encounter in the stratosphere. Eyer talked to give shape to his
own thoughts.

A world gone mad, a world that fled from the menace which hung over
Manhattan.... Jeter hoped that the calm brains of men like Hadley would
at least be able to quiet the populace somewhat, else many of them would
be self-destroyed, as men and women destroy one another in rushes for
the exits during great theater fire alarms.

Fast as they traveled, some of the foremost airmen of the adjoining
country had reached Mineola ahead of them. They understood that many of
them had arrived by plane in obedience to w