loud. Bow is invisible. All--"

She was in it. She lurched. Plunged forward. She was hidden. I turned
to the sergeant. Tremendous concentration was on his bronzed face. He
reached out, twirled a dial in the set before him, and shook his head
slightly. Twirled again. We were knotted around him, our faces
bloodless. He looked up. "The last sentence was cut off sharp, sir. I
can hear nothing more. Even the carrier wave is dead."

Jim ripped out an oath, snatched the phones, and clamped them over his
own ears. Dead silence.

At last he looked up. "Nothing, gentlemen."

* * * * *

We looked at each other, appalled.

Bradley handed the apparatus back to the sergeant. "Remain here,
listening carefully. Let me know at once if you hear anything." The
sergeant saluted.

Out there the white cloud billowed and gleamed in the sunlight. But
there was something ominous in its calm beauty now.

A thought struck me. I spoke, and my voice sounded flat, dead.
"Perhaps it's only the radio waves that are cut off. Maybe she's all
right, fighting there inside, smashing them." But I knew that it was
all over.

"God, I hope you're right. Five thousand men aboard her." Bradley's
lips were white, his hands trembling. "Come to my office, Eric; we'll
wait there. To your posts, gentlemen. Each of you will detail a man to
watch that cloud bank, and report to me any change in its appearance,
even the slightest."

We walked back to the concrete command-post. We didn't talk, though it
had been years since we had seen each other. My brain was numbed, I
know. I had seen plenty of fighting, watched many a man go to his
death in the seven months since the war began. But this, somehow, was
different.

An hour passed. Jim busied himself with routine paper work. At least
he had that relief. I paced about his tiny office. Already I was
making plans. Force had failed. Strategy must take its place. I must
get in there. But how?

Bradley looked up from his work, his face grim. "No news, Eric. If you
were right we should have heard something from the _New York_ by this
time. They're gone, all right."

"Yes, they're gone," I answered. "It's up to me, then."

* * * * *

He stared in surprise. "Up to you? What do you mean?"

"Just that. I'm going in there, God helping." I made sure the room was
shut tight against eavesdroppers. Then, briefly as I could, I told him
of my orders, showing