lake dared to hope. "Scientists will
come through with something, some new method of propulsion. All the
world is looking to them!" His thoughts were leaping from one
possibility to another. "Some miracle of power that will drive a fleet
through space as they have done, to battle with the enemy on his own
ground--"

Could he help? Was there one little thing that he could do to apply
their knowledge to practical ends? The thought thrilled him with
overpowering emotion an hour later as he felt the lift of the plane
beneath him.

"Report to General Clinton," the colonel's reply had said. "Captain
Blake will be assigned to special duty." He opened the throttle to his
ship's best cruising speed, but his spirit was soaring ahead to urge on
the swift scout ship whose wings drove steadily into the gathering
dusk.

* * * * *

And then, after long hours, Washington! Brief words with many men--and
discouragement! The seat of government of the United States was a city
of despondent men, weary, hopeless, but fighting. There was a look of
strain on every face; the eyes told a story of sleepless nights and
futile thinking and planning. Blake's elation was short lived.

He was sent to New York and on into the state, where the laboratories of
a great electrical company had turned their equipment from commercial
purposes to those of war. Here, surely, one might find fuel to feed the
dying embers of hope; the new development must give greater promise than
General Clinton had intimated.

"Nothing you can do as yet," he was told, when he had stated his
mission. "It is still experimental, but we have worked out the
transformation on a small scale, and harnessed the power."

Captain Blake was in no mood for temporizing; he was tired with being
put off. He stared belligerently at the chief of this department.

"Power--hell!" he said. "We've got power now. How will you apply it? How
will we use it for travelling through space?"

The great man of science was unmoved by the outburst. "That is
poppycock," he replied; "the unscientific twaddle of the sensational
press. We are practical men here; we are working to give you men who do
the fighting better ships and better arms. But you will use them right
here on Earth."

The calm assurance of this man who spoke with a voice of such confidence
and authority left the flyer speechless. His brain sent a chaos of
profane and violent expletives to the lips that d