as painted white, and on it there was a large white banner,
flapping in the wind of its passage. The rest of the ships drew off as
this came forward, and stopped, hanging motionless before the control
room of the giant machine. There were men inside--three strange men,
short and oddly pink-skinned--but they were gesturing now, motioning
that the giant machine settle to the ground beneath. Taj Lamor was
considering whether or not to thus parley with the strangers, when
suddenly there leaped from the white craft a beam of clear white--a beam
that was directed toward the ground, then swung up toward the great
cruiser in a swift arc!

As one, a dozen swift beams of pale red flared out from the giant and
bathed the pigmy craft. As they reached it, the white ray that had been
sweeping up suddenly vanished, and for an instant the ship hung poised
in the air; then it began to swing crazily, like the pendulum of a
clock--swung completely over--and with a sickening lurch sped swiftly
for the plain nearly five miles below. In moments there came a brief
flare, then there remained only a little crater in the soft soil.

But the red beams had not stopped with the little ship; they had darted
out to the other machines, trying to reach them before they could bring
those strange white rays into play. The cruisers obviously must win, for
they carried dozens of projectors, but they might be damaged, their
flight delayed. They must defeat those strangers quickly. The rays of
Taj Lamor's ship lashed out swiftly, but almost before they had
started, all the other ships, a full hundred, were in action, and the
flagship was darting swiftly up and away from the battle. Below, those
pale red rays were taking a swift toll of the little ships, and nearly
twenty of them rolled suddenly over, and dashed to destruction far
below.

But now the little ships were in swift darting motion. Because of their
small size, they were able to avoid the rays of the larger interstellar
cruisers, and as their torpedo-shaped hulls flashed about with
bewildering speed, they began to fight back. They had been taken utterly
by surprise, but now they went into action with an abandon and swiftness
that took the initiative away from the gigantic interstellar liners.
They were in a dozen places at once, dodging and twisting, unharmed, out
of the way of the deadly red beams, and were as hard to hit as so many
dancing feathers suspended over an air jet.

And if the pilots