ere clear,
and the idea of hypnosis was absurd, for we had tried to turn back. It
was the machine that refused to obey.

Again Foulet leaned forward. "Drop!" he shouted. Brice nodded, but the
plane refused to respond. On and on, straight as a die, it sped.

"Try slowing the motor," I yelled into Brice's ear and both Foulet and
I leaned forward to watch results.

The motors slowed. Gradually the roaring, pounding hum lessened, and
our speed continued! The whine of the wind in the wires abated not one
whit! The speedometer on our instrument board climbed!

Brice turned. His face, in the deepening dusk, was a blur of pasty
white. His hands hung at his sides. The motors purred, pulsed, were
silent. The plane, unaided, unguided, flew alone!

* * * * *

We sat hushed and unbelieving in that terrible, deathlike silence. Our
ears, attuned all day to the deafening roar of the motors, felt as if
they would burst in the sudden, agonizing stillness. There was not a
sound save the whine of the wind in the wires as the plane sped on.
Above us curved the illimitable arch of darkening sky. Below us lay
the empty stretch of blank desert.

We didn't speak. I know that I, for one, could not bring my voice to
break that ominous stillness. Silently we sat there, watching,
waiting.... The quick darkness of the desert fell like a velvet
curtain. The stars burst forth as if lit by an invisible hand. Foulet
stirred, leaned forward, gasped. My eyes followed his gaze. Before our
plane spread a path of light, dull, ruddily glowing, like the ghost of
live embers. It cut the darkness of the night like a flaming
finger--and along it we sped as if on an invisible track!

"The speed of that other plane," muttered Brice, breaking that utter
silence, "This was it!"

Foulet and I nodded. Well could I imagine that we were travelling at
that same terrific, impossible speed. And we were helpless--helpless
in the clutch of--what? What power lay behind this band of light that
drew us irresistibly toward it?

The ruddy pathway brightened. The light grew stronger. Our speed
increased. The whine of the wires was tuned almost past human hearing.
The plane trembled like a live thing in the grip of inhuman forces. A
great glowing eye suddenly burst from the rim of the horizon--the
source of the light! Instinctively I closed my eyes. What power might
that eye possess? The same thought must have struck Brice and Foulet
for t