e're done! Down, Wade, to within a few hundred feet of the ground, and
close to the field!"

The _Solarite_ flashed down in a power dive--down with a sickening
lurch. A sudden tremendous weight seemed to crush them as the ship was
brought out of the dive not more than two hundred feet from the ground.
Close to blacking out, Wade nevertheless shot it in as close to the
field as he dared. Anxiously he called to Arcot, who answered with a
brief "Okay!" The planes loomed gigantic now, their true proportions
showing clearly against the brilliant light of the field. A tremendous
wave of sound burst from the loudspeaker as the planes rolled across the
ground to leap gracefully into the air--half a million tons of metal!

From the _Solarite_ there darted a pale beam of ghostly light, faintly
gray, tinged with red and green--the ionized air of the beam. It moved
in a swift half circle. In an instant the whirr of the hundreds,
thousands of giant propellers was drowned in a terrific roar of air.
Great snowflakes fell from the air before them; it was white with the
solidified water vapor. Then came a titanic roar and the planet itself
seemed to shake! A crash, a snapping and rending as a mighty fountain of
soil and rock cascaded skyward, and with it, twisting, turning, hurled
in a dozen directions at once, twelve titanic ships reeled drunkenly
into the air!

For a barely perceptible interval there was an oppressive silence as the
ray was shut off. Then a bedlam of deafening sound burst forth anew, a
mighty deluge of unbearable noise as the millions of tons of pulverized
rock, humus and metal fell back. Some of it had ascended for miles; it
settled amid a howling blizzard--snow that melted as it touched the
madly churned airfield.

High above there were ten planes flying about uncertainly. Suddenly one
of these turned, heading for the ground far below, its wings screaming
their protest as the motors roared, ever faster, with the gravity of the
planet aiding them. There was a rending, crackling crash as the wings
suddenly bent back along the sides. An instant later the fuselage tore
free, rocketing downward; the wings followed more slowly--twisting,
turning, dipping in mile-long swoops.

The _Solarite_ shot away from the spot at maximum speed--away and up,
with a force that nailed the occupants to the floor. Before they could
turn, behind them flared a mighty gout of light that struck to the very
clouds above, and all the landsc