end this era and usher in a new one.

All this, however, is wandering afar from my story, which concerns our
early battles against the Hans, and not our more modern problems of
self-control.

Our victory over the seven Han ships had set the country ablaze. The
secret had been carefully communicated to the other gangs, and the
country was agog from one end to the other. There was feverish activity
in the ammunition plants, and the hunting of stray Han ships became an
enthusiastic sport. The results were disastrous to our hereditary
enemies.

From the Pacific Coast came the report of a great transpacific liner of
75,000 tons "lift" being brought to earth from a position of
invisibility above the clouds. A dozen Sacramentos had caught the hazy
outlines of its rep rays approaching them, head-on, in the twilight,
like ghostly pillars reaching into the sky. They had fired rockets into
it with ease, whereas they would have had difficulty in hitting it if it
had been moving at right angles to their position. They got one rep ray.
The other was not strong enough to hold it up. It floated to earth, nose
down, and since it was unarmed and unarmored, they had no difficulty in
shooting it to pieces and massacring its crew and passengers. It seemed
barbarous to me. But then I did not have centuries of bitter persecution
in my blood.

From the Jersey Beaches we received news of the destruction of a
Nu-yok-A-lan-a liner. The Sand-snipers, practically invisible in their
sand-colored clothing, and half buried along the beaches, lay in wait
for days, risking the play of dis beams along the route, and finally
registering four hits within a week. The Hans discontinued their service
along this route, and as evidence that they were badly shaken by our
success, sent no raiders down the Beaches.

It was a few weeks later that Big Boss Hart sent for me.

"Tony," he said, "There are two things I want to talk to you about. One
of them will become public property in a few days, I think. We aren't
going to get any more Han ships by shooting up their repellor rays
unless we use much larger rockets. They are wise to us now. They're
putting armor of great thickness in the hulls of their ships below the
rep-ray machines. Near Bah-flo this morning a party of Eries shot one
without success. The explosions staggered her, but did not penetrate. As
near as we can gather from their reports, their laboratories have
developed a new alloy of great tensile