n of a second and was his
disintegrating mind reporting the startling fact of death by telling him
that the sun was jumping?

The sun couldn't jump.

It _had_ jumped. It had been almost directly overhead. Now it was two
hours down the western sky.

Tons of water were cascading over the bow of the ship. Waves were
leaping over the deck. The Idaho seemed to have sunk several feet. Now
her buoyancy was asserting itself and she was trying to rise out of the
sea. She was fighting her way upward, rising against the weight of the
water.

A wind was blowing. There had been almost no wind but now a gale of
hurricane proportions was howling through the superstructure of the
ship.

A heavy sea was running. The sea had been glassy smooth. Now it was
covered with white caps.

The bombs had exploded, a blue light had flamed, a giant had ripped the
sky apart, a gale had leaped into existence, the sea had covered itself
with white capped waves, and the sun had jumped.

Craig looked at the sky, seeking the second flight of bombers. The air
was filled with scudding clouds. There were no bombers in sight.

The anti-aircraft batteries, with no target, suddenly stopped firing.

Except for the howl of the wind through the superstructure, the ship was
silent. The silence was so heavy it hurt the ears. The officers on the
bridge stood without moving, frozen statues. They seemed paralyzed.

The ship was running herself.

"W--what--what the hell became of those Jappos?" Craig heard a dazed
officer say.

"Yeah, what happened to those bombers?"

"Where did this wind come from?"

"There wasn't any wind a minute ago."

"Look at the sea. It's covered with white caps!"

"Something happened to the sun. I--I'm almost positive I saw it move."

Dazed, bewildered voices.

"What the devil became of the carrier?" That was the voice of Captain
Higgins.

"And the rest of the force, the cruisers and destroyers--what became of
them?"

Craig looked toward the spot where he had last seen the carrier. She had
been launching planes.

He did not believe his eyes.

The carrier was gone.

The cruisers and destroyers that had been cutting foaming circles around
the carrier and the battleship--were gone.

The surface of the sea was empty. There weren't even any puffs of
exploding shells in the sky.

* * * * *

The Idaho plunged forward through strange seas. From horizon to horizon
there was nothing to be