succession of doors as rapidly as they dared. Once
in the comfort of their cabin they doffed their stratosphere suits with
all possible speed. Jeter was the first free. He jumped to the controls
and speeded up the motor. In a matter of seconds it was revving up to a
speed which, had it been free, would have pulled the plane along at
seven hundred miles an hour at the height at which they were.

But the plane did not move!

* * * * *

Jeter slowed the motor, then started racing it fast, trying to jerk the
fuselage free of the imbedded wheels, but they would not be released.
Both men realized that the wheels had sunk from sight while they had
been delayed coming through the succession of doors--that the plane had
sunk until the invisible surface gripped the floor of the fuselage.

Perspiration beaded the faces of both men. Eyer managed a ghastly grin.
Jeter's brow was furrowed with frantic thought as he tried to imagine a
way out.

"If we could somehow cut our landing gear free," began Jeter, "but--"

"But it's too late, Lucian," said Eyer quietly. "Look at the window."

They both looked.

Countless fingers of shadowy gray substance were undulating up the
surface of the window, like pale angleworms or white serpents of many
sizes, trying to climb up a pane of glass.

"Well," said Jeter, "here we are! You see? Outside we can see nothing.
Inside we begin to see a little, and what good will it do us?"

Eyer grinned. It was as though he lighted a cigarette and nonchalantly
blew smoke rings at the ceiling, save that they dared not use up any of
their precious oxygen by smoking.

Their fear had left them utterly when it would have been natural for
them to be stunned by it.

CHAPTER VIII

_Cataclysmic Hunger_

Eyer thrust out his hand to cut the motor. Jeter stayed it.

"I've an idea," he said softly; "let it run. We'll learn something more
about the sensitiveness of this material."

The motor was cut to idling. The plane scarcely trembled now in the pull
of the motor, so firmly was she held in the grip of the shadowy, vague
tentacles. A grim sort of silence had settled in the cabin. The faces of
the two partners were dead white, but their eyes were fearless. They had
come aloft to give their lives if need be. They wouldn't try to get them
back now. Besides, what use was there?

Jeter paused for a moment in thought.

Then he began to examine some of their weapons. The