ed in you,
for I fell in love with you. But I can fall out again, and maybe--who
knows...." she laughed.

"What's more to the point, Carna, is she interested in me?"

"I could tell you," said Carna, her eyes mysterious on my own, luminous
and huge in the darkness.

"Well, perhaps you had better tell me, then."

"Why? I love you!"

"You mean she _is_ interested in me!"

"Very much, and she is a very smart woman who has ways of getting what
she wants. I am very much afraid she will take you with her to space
when they go, and leave poor Carna in her ruined city, with no one but
the wild beasts and the dead bodies. This will be the end of this
place."

"You are wrong!" I smiled, thinking the girl was flattering me.

"No, not wrong, dear earthman. I am very much afraid of the future, for
I am to lose you, but I have a way of avoiding that."

"And what is that way?"

"You will find out when the time comes, and you may like it very much!"

"Let's get away from this wall where we can see what's going on...."

We plodded across the level, grassy valley floor, walking backward some
of the time, watching the great circling ships above the city's center,
and the lancing blue paths of their rays stabbing at some darting
adversary high above them.

Then from the western sky came a series of round low shapes, speeding so
rapidly the eye could hardly distinguish them from the darkly glowing
horizon. After their passage, in a close series, came the air-scream of
falling missiles, high-pitched, then came a terrific cannonading of
explosions. Fountains of fire sprang up in exact sequence, one after the
other. The ground shook and shook underfoot, each shock seeming greater,
to add its strength to the one preceding it. I knew that this was for
the Jivros the end of their plans on earth.

Simultaneous with the arrow-swift flight, two great blazing lances of
blue fire shot downward from the ships far overhead, transfixed the
circling spheres one after the other. They tilted, plunged slowly,
faster and faster--ended in great splashes of fire and sound somewhere
in the city below.

I mopped my face. The night was hot, and relief flooded me.

"We got out of there just in time, Miss Mystic!"

She nodded, her white smile in the night a beautiful thing.

"What is this Miss Mystic word you use?"

"It means Zoorph, Carna. It is U.S.A. speech."

"U.S.A. speech," she parroted. "Some day I will talk U.S.A. speech, too,
like y