byss.
No; quite intact, unharmed, but utterly powerless they fell.

Some spiraled down, like dead leaves twirling in autumnal breezes,
with drunken yaws and pitches. Others in long slants volplaned toward
the hidden sea, miles below the cloud-plain. A few pitched over and
over, or slid away in nose-dives and tail-spins. But one and all, as
they crossed what seemed an invisible line drawn out there ahead of
the onrushing Eagle of the Sky, bowed to some mysterious force.

It seemed almost as if _Nissr_ were the center of a vast sphere that
moved with her--a sphere through which no enemy could pass--a sphere
against the intangible surface of which even the most powerful engines
of the air dashed themselves in vain.

And still, as others and still others came charging up to the attack
like knights in joust, they fell. One by one the white wool cushions
of the cloud, gold-broidered by the magic needles of the sun, received
them. One by one they faded, vanished, were no more.

So, all disappeared. Between a hundred and a hundred and twenty-five
planes were silently, swiftly, resistlessly sent down in no more
than twenty minutes, while the watchers stood there in the gallery,
fascinated by the wondrous precision and power of this new and
far-outflung globe of protection.

And again the blood-red morning sky grew clear of attackers. Again,
between high heaven's black vault and the fantastic continent of cloud
below, nothing remained but free vacancy. The Master smiled.

"Vibrations, my dear Major!" said he. "Neutralize the currents
delivered by the magnetos of hostile planes to their spark-plugs, and
you transform the most powerful engines into inert matter. Not all the
finely adjusted mechanism in the world, nor the best of petrol, nor
yet the most perfect skill is worth _that_," with a snap of the strong
fingers, "when the spark dies.

"My device is the absolute ruler of whatever spark I direct it
against. Our own ignition is screened; but all others within the
critical radius become impotent. So you recognize, do you not, the
uselessness of machine-guns? The groundlessness of any fears about the
Air Patrol's forces?"

"Lord, but this is wonderful!" Bohannan ejaculated. "If we'd only had
this in the Great War, the Hun would have been wiped out in a month!"

"Yes, but we didn't have it," the Master smiled. "I've just finished
perfecting it. Put the last touches on it hardly twenty-four hours
ago. If there's ever ano