ive ray apparatus which Arcot had used was working
through it. The screen flashed here and there and collapsed under the
full barrage of half the Thessian fleet, as Arcot had suspected it
would. But the same force that made it collapse operated a relay that
turned on the space control, and Thett's molecular ray energy steamed
off to outer space.

"We worried them, then dug our hole and dragged it in after us, as
usual, but damn it, we can't hurt them!" said Arcot disgustedly. "All we
can do is tease them, then go hide where it's perfectly safe, in
artificial--" Arcot stopped in amazement. The ship had been held under
such space control that space was shut in about them, and they were
motionless. The dials had reached a steady point, the current flow had
become zero, and they hung there with only the very slow drain of the
Sun's gravitational field and that of the planet's field pulling on the
ship. Suddenly the current had leaped, and the dials giving the charge
in the various coil banks had moved them down toward zero.

"Hey--they've got a wedge in here and are breaking out our hole. Turn on
all the generators, Morey." Arcot was all action now. Somehow,
inconceivable though it was, the Thessians had spotted them, and got
some means of attacking them, despite their invulnerable position in
another space!

The generators were on, pouring enormous power into the coils, and the
dials surged, stopped, and climbed ever so slowly. They should have
jumped back under that charge, ordinarily dangerously heavy. For perhaps
thirty seconds they climbed, then they started down at full speed!

Arcot's hand darted to the time field, and switched it on full. The dial
jerked, swung, then swung back, and started falling in unison with the
dials, stopped, and climbed. All climbed swiftly, gaining ever more
rapidly. With what seemed a jerk, the time dial flew over, and back, as
Arcot opened the switch. They were free, and the dial on the space
control coils was climbing normally now.

"By the Nine Planets, did they drink out our energy! The energy of six
tons of lead just like that!"

"How'd they do it?" asked Wade.

Torlos kept silent, and helped Morey replace the coils of lead wire with
others from stock.

"Same way we tickled them," replied Arcot, carefully studying the
control instruments, "with the gravity ray! We knew all along that
gravitational fields drank out the energy--they simply pulled it out
faster than we could pu