r, that kind of
noise isn't made by pop-guns."

"Let's go see what's doing," and Seaton started to walk toward one of
the windows with his free, swinging stride. Instantly he was a-sprawl,
the effort necessary to carry his weight upon the Earth's surface
lifting him into the air in a succession of ludicrous hops, but he soon
recovered himself and walked normally.

"I forgot this two-fifths gravity stuff," he laughed. "Walk as though we
had only a notch of power on and it goes all right. It sure is funny to
feel so light when we're so close to the ground."

He closed the doors to keep out a part of the noise and advanced the
speed lever a little, so that the vessel tilted sharply under the pull
of the almost horizontal bar.

"Go easy," cautioned Crane. "We do not want to get in the way of one of
their shells. They may be of a different kind than those we are familiar
with."

"Right--easy it is. We'll stay forty miles above them, if necessary."

As the great speed of the ship rapidly lessened the distance, the sound
grew heavier and clearer--like one continuous explosion. So closely did
one deafening concussion follow another that the ear could not
distinguish the separate reports.

"I see them," simultaneously announced Crane, who was seated at one of
the forward windows searching the country with his binoculars, and
Seaton, who, from the pilot's seat, could see in any direction.

The others hurried to the windows with their glasses and saw an
astonishing sight.

"Aerial battleships, eight of 'em!" exclaimed Seaton, "as big as the
Idaho. Four of 'em are about the same shape as our battleships. No
wings--they act like helicopters."

"Four of them are battleships, right enough, but what about the other
four?" asked DuQuesne. "They are not ships or planes or anything else
that I ever heard of."

"They are animals," asserted Crane. "Machines never were and never will
be built like that."

As the Skylark cautiously approached, it was evident to the watchers
that four of the contestants were undoubtedly animals. Here indeed was a
new kind of animal, an animal able to fight on even terms with a
first-class battleship! Frightful aerial monsters they were. Each had an
enormous, torpedo-shaped body, with scores of prodigiously long
tentacles like those of a devil-fish and a dozen or more great, soaring
wings. Even at that distance they could see the row of protruding eyes
along the side of each monstrous body and t