and will myself to appear bodily in a
certain placed. It is instantaneous. I step into the dome, for
example, and will myself to appear whole upon the Moon, and there I
will appear!"

"You mean that during the period of transposition you are invisible?"

"Yes, invisible because non-existent, except for the essential
elements of me, broken down by the secret exit dome, reassembled at
the place willed in their entirety! I can't fly there, for a million
eyes would see me approach! I must go in secret, as a spy, and wearing
the clothing and insignia of a member of the Gens of Dalis!"

Silence in the observatory for a brief breathing space, and then Jaska
spoke that speech out of the books of antiquity, which remains the
classic expression of loyalty.

"Whithersoever thou goest, there will I go also!"

From the laboratory came a sudden burst of laughter, the laughter
which all three recognized as the laughter of Dalis; but when they
entered the place of the Revolving Beryl, there was no one there--and
a feeling of dread, all encompassing, held them thralled for the space
of several heart-beats. Dalis, they knew, was thousands of miles away,
upon the Moon; yet here in the place of the Master Beryl they all
three had just heard his sardonic laughter!

CHAPTER XII

_Ashes of the Moon_

Through the micro-telescopes it was possible to see what had happened
after Dalis had assumed command of the Gens of Dalis. For even though
the Moon, in spite of the speed of the Beryls, was being forced
further and further from the Earth, the eyes of the micro-telescopes
picked out and enlarged details to such an extent that the battle
seemed to be transpiring under the eyes of the beholders.

A terrific jumble, in which Earthlings and aircars were all tumbled
together in mad chaos, a great mass of writhing, green-garbed figures.
Infinite in number--in the midst of which were the gigantic aircars,
like monster beetles being beset by armies upon armies of ants.

Then, by the time Jaska had seated herself in the observatory atop the
Himalayas, to watch what developed, the battle seemed to be over, and
the Moon-men had won. For the huge cars swung around between the
myriads of the Gens of Dalis, and seemed to be herding them toward the
Moon, as though they were prisoners.

Telepathically, Sarka and his father had been able to catch some hint
of the thoughts of the Earthlings in the battle, and these thoughts
had been tinged with do