uld not hope to destroy their ray shield, they could no longer
attack his, for their rays were useless, and already they had lost so
much of the protective relux, that they would not be so foolhardy as to
risk a second attack of the ray.

Arcot continued to bathe the ship in energy, keeping their "eyes"
closed. As long as he could hold his barrage on them, they would not
damage him.

"Morey--get into the power room, strap onto the board. Throw all the
power-coil banks into the magnets. I may burn them out, but I have
hopes--" Arcot already had the generators going full power, charging the
power coils.

Morey dived. Almost simultaneously the Thessians succeeded in the
maneuver they had been attempting for some time. There were a dozen rays
flaring wildly from the ship, searching blindly over the sky and ground,
hoping to stumble on the enemy ship, while their own ship dived and
twisted. Arcot was busily dodging the sweeping rays, but finally one hit
his viewplates, and his own ship was blind. Instantly he threw the ray
screen out, cutting off his own molecular ray. His own cosmics he set
rotating in cones that covered the three dimensions--save below, where
the city lay. Immediately the Thessian had retreated to this one segment
where Arcot did not dare throw his own rays. The Thessian cosmics
continued to make his relux screens necessary, and his ship remained
blind.

His ray screen was showing signs of weakening. The Thessians got a third
ray into position for operation, and opened up. Almost at once the tubes
heated terrifically. In an instant they would give way. Arcot threw his
ship into space, and let the tubes cool under the water jacket. Morey
reported the coils ready as soon as he came out of space.

Arcot cut in the new set of eyes, and put up his molecular ray screen
again. Then he cut the energy back to the coils.

Half a mile below the enemy ship was vainly scurrying around an empty
sky. Wade laughed at the strange resemblance to a puppy chasing its
tail. The _Ancient Mariner_ was utterly lost to them.

"Well, here goes the last trick," said Arcot grimly. "If this doesn't
work, they'll probably win, for their tubes are better than ours, and
they can maneuver faster. By win I mean force us to let them attack
Ortol. They can't really attack us; artificial space is a perfect
defense."

Arcot's molecular ray apprized the Thessians of his presence. Their
screen flared up once more. Arcot was driving str