Moon-men!"

Neither Dalis nor Sarka denied this statement, for they knew it to be
fact. It became apparent that the movement of the Aircars was not a
movement of chance, but as skillfully ordered as any maneuvers which
had, during the last few hours, been executed by any of the Gens of
Earth. That they were of metal became apparent when, through the
Micro-Telescopes, the watchers caught the glint of the sun on the
surfaces of the cars.

Sarka did a swift mental calculation, and announced the result.

"Those Aircars average something like four hundred feet in length, and
are doubtless filled with fighting Moon-men!"

"That's right," said Dalis, who also had been calculating this very
thing, "but our Ray Directors will disintegrate the Aircars as easily as
my Ray Director disintegrated Sarka the First!"

* * * * *

"The remaining Sarkas received this statement in silence, for Dalis'
choice of a comparison had been an unhappy one, to say the least.

"I am wondering," said Sarka, "if you, my father, and you Dalis, have
noted the peculiar appendages of the Aircars?"

"I saw them some minutes ago," said his father moodily, "and I am almost
afraid to guess their use! If they are what I fear they are, then the
Moon-men have been expecting this attack of ours for years and years,
and have been preparing for it! If they have known, and have been
preparing, then we are facing a race of super-Beings indeed--for we have
known but little of their activities!"

"What, then," said Dalis, "do you think is the purpose of those
appendages?"

"Those appendages, cilia, flagella, call them whatever you wish, are
man-made tentacles, created for the purpose of seizing, crushing and
destroying--then discarding...."

For a full two minutes the three men sat there, and horrible doubts
flooded their brains. For the conclusion was obvious. The Gens of Earth
would go into action flying, not as organizations, inside an Aircar, but
as individuals, in swarms, myriads, legions and hordes. In order to do
the utmost damage with their Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators,
they must approach within a reasonable distance--and the picture of
those mighty tentacles, hurled like leashed lightning bolts into the
midst of the attackers, folding in individuals by scores and hundreds,
crushing them and dropping them contemptuously, was horrible in the
extreme to contemplate!

* * * * *