e down both sides of the long corridor, and along the two
parallel corridors down the wing. In the fourth corridor near the back
edge of the wing, there were bunk rooms on one side, and on the other
were bombing posts.

As they continued walking down the first corridor, they came to a small
room, whence issued the low hum of one of the motors. Entering, they
found the crew sleeping, and the motor idling.

"Good Lord!" Wade exclaimed. "Look at that motor, Arcot! No bigger than
the trunk of a man's body. Yet a battery of these sends the ship along
at a mile a second! What power!"

Slowly they proceeded down the long hall. At each of the fifty engine
mountings they found the same conditions. At the end of the hall there
was an escalator that led one level higher, into the upper wing. Here
they found long rows of the bombing posts and the corresponding quartz
rods.

They returned finally to the control room. Here Arcot spent a long time
looking over the many instruments, the controls, and the piloting
apparatus.

"Wade," he said at last, "I think I can see how this is done. I am going
to stop those engines, start them, then accelerate them till the ship
rolls a bit!" Arcot stepped quickly over to the pilots seat, lifted the
sleeping pilot out, and settled in his place.

"Now, you go over to that board there--that one--and when I ask you to,
please turn on that control--no, the one below--yes--turn it on about
one notch at a time."

Wade shook his head dubiously, a one-sided grin on his face. "All right,
Arcot--just as you say--but when I think of the powers you're playing
with--well, a mistake might be unhealthy!"

"I'm going to stop the motors now," Arcot announced quietly. All the
time they had been on board, they had been aware of the barely inaudible
whine of the motors. Now suddenly, it was gone, and the plane was still
as death!

Arcot's voice sounded unnaturally loud. "I did it without blowing the
ship up after all! Now we're going to try turning the power on!"

Suddenly there was a throaty hum; then quickly it became the low whine;
then, as Arcot turned on the throttle before him, he heard the tens of
thousands of horsepower spring into life--and suddenly the whine was a
low roar--the mighty propellers out there had became a blur--then with
majestic slowness the huge machine moved off across the field!

Arcot shut off the motors and rose with a broad, relieved smile, "Easy!"
he said. They made their wa