alled into
play. All enemy ships were shot at with these missiles, and invisibility
was forestalled.

At long last the dark bulk of the main fleet approached, a scarcely
visible cloud of tiny darting metal ships. The battle so far had been a
preliminary engagement. The huge ships of the Nigrans were forced to
stop their attack, and releasing the last of the fliers, to retire to a
distance, protected by a screen of small ships, for they were helpless
against the Solarian speedsters. Invisibility fell into disfavor, too,
now that there were plenty of Solarian ships, for the Nigrans were more
conspicuous when invisible than when visible. The radio detector could
pick them out at once.

The entire Nigran fleet was beginning to reveal the disorder and
uncertainty that arose from desperation, for they were cornered in the
most undesirable position possible. They were outside the Solarian
fleet, and their ships were lighted by the glare of the sun. The
defenders, on the other hand, were in such a position that the enemy
could see only the "night" side of them--the shadowed side--and, as
there was no air to diffuse the light, they were exceedingly hard to
find. In the bargain, the radium paint was making life for the Nigrans a
brief and flitting thing!

The invaders began to pay an awful toll in this their first real
engagement. They lacked the necessary power to cover the entire Solarian
fleet with their death rays, and their heat weapons were of little help.
The power of the small ships did not count for much--and the big liners
could not use their weapons effectively for their small fliers must be
between them and their adversary. Despite this, however, the Nigrans so
greatly outnumbered the Earth-Venus forces that it looked as though a
long and costly war lay ahead.

At last the Solarian generals tried a ruse, a ruse they hoped would work
on these beings; but they who never before had to plan a war in space,
were not sure that their opponents had not had experience in the art.
True, the Nigrans hadn't revealed any especially striking
generalship--had, in fact, committed some inexcusable blunders--but they
couldn't be sure. Though they didn't know it, the Solarians had the
advantage of thousands of years of planetary warfare to rely on. This
stood them in good stead now.

The Nigrans were rallying rapidly. To their surprise, the forces of the
Solarians were dwindling, and no matter how desperately this remnant
fought,