ed at me with his baleful glance;
was deafened, and stunned, and crushed by that final tremendous down
pouring of the waters.

* * * * *

I was standing--he began--on one of our rafts, watching the
installation of a new ray machine. A storm was raging, but the great
raft, a thousand feet long, and five hundred wide, was as steady as a
rock. We were 700 miles out; the great push of '92, that drove us back
to within 150 miles of our coast and almost ended the war, was still
eleven weeks off.

Suddenly the buzzer of my radio-receiver whirred against my chest.
"2--6--4"--my personal call. "2--2"--"Go to nearest communications
booth." "A--4"--"Use Intelligence Service intermitter 4." The secret
of that was known only to a half-dozen men in the field. Headquarters
wanted to talk to me on a supremely important matter.

There was a booth only a short distance away. I stepped to it and
identified myself to the guard. In a moment I was within and had swung
shut and sealed the sound-proof door. I set the intermitter switches
to the A--4 combination. Not even our own control officers could
eavesdrop now. Then I switched off the light, and waited.

A green glow grew out of the darkness. I was being inspected.
Headquarters was taking no chances. Out of the green haze before me
the general himself materialized. I could count every hair in his
grizzled beard. The little scar at the corner of his left eye
fascinated me with its distinctness.

I saluted. "Captain Bolton reporting, sir."

"At ease!" General Sommers' voice snapped with military precision. The
general was standing in his private office in Washington. I could see
his desk in the corner, and the great operations map on the wall.
There were new lines of worry in the general's grim face.

* * * * *

He went straight to the point. "Captain Bolton, we are confronted with
a problem that must be solved at once. While our information is
meagre, the Staff is convinced that a great danger menaces us. Of its
precise nature, or how it is to be combatted, we are unaware. I am
assigning you to secure the answer to these two questions.

"A week ago there appeared, ten miles east of the enemies' first line,
and directly opposite our raft 1264, what seemed at first to be merely
a peculiar cloud formation. It rose directly from the surface of the
water, and was shaped roughly like half an egg. The greatest
dimension, l