bs Morey hurled, while they held their position without
difficulty, pouring their bombs and rays at the fort.

Arcot threw the ship into space, moved, and reappeared suddenly nearly
three hundred yards further on. A snap of the eyes, and he saw that the
fleet was approaching now. He went again into space, and retreated.
Discretion was the better part of valor. But his plan had worked.

He waited half an hour, and returned. From a distance the telectroscope
told him that one lone ship was patrolling outside the fort. He moved
toward it, creeping up behind the icy mountains. His magnetic beam
reached out. The ship lurched and fell. The magnetic beam reached out
toward the fort, from which a molecular ray had flashed already, tearing
up the icy waste which had concealed him. The ray-screen stopped it,
while again Morey turned the magnetic beam on--this time against the
fort. The ray remained on! Arcot retreated hastily.

"They found the secret, all right. No use, Morey, come on up," called
the pilot. "They evidently put magnetic shielding around the apparatus.
That means the magnetic beam is no good to us any more. They will
certainly warn every other base, and have them install similar
protection."

"Why didn't you try the magnetic ray on our first attack?" asked Zezdon
Afthen.

"If it had worked, their sending apparatus would have been destroyed,
and no message could have been sent to call their attackers off
Fellsheh. By forcing them to recall their fleet I got results I couldn't
get by attacking the fleet," Arcot said.

"I think there is little more I can do here, Stel Felso Theu. I will
take you to Shesto, and there make final arrangements till my return,
with apparatus capable of overthrowing your enemies. If you wish to
accompany me--you may." He glanced around at the others of his party.
"And our next move will be to return to Earth with what we have. Then we
will investigate the Sirian planets, and learn anything they may have of
interest, thence--to the real outer space, the utter void of
intergalactic space, and an attempt to learn the secret of that enormous
power."

They returned to Shesto, and there Arcot arranged that the only
generator they could spare, the one already in their possession, might
be used till other terrestrian ships could bring more. They left for
Earth. Hour after hour they fled through the void, till at last old Sol
was growing swiftly ahead of them, and finally Earth itself was la