ny
button. They'd crash into the palace in another second! But no, a
brilliant flash obscured his vision, a blinding light that made the sun
seem dark by comparison. They roared on and upward. He took his eye from
the telescope and stared ahead, down. The city was dropping away, and,
where the crystal palace had stood, there was a spreading blob of molten
material from which searing vapors were drifting. The roofs of the city
were sagging all around and great streams of the sparkling, sputtering
liquid dripped into the openings that suddenly appeared. Derek Van Dorn
was avenged.

"Destroy! Destroy!" yelled Karl madly. A microphone hung before him and
his words rang through every vessel of his convoy.

* * * * *

The lust of battle was upon him. A fleet of the Zar's aeros had risen
from below; twenty of them at least. These would be manned by Moon
creatures, he knew, and would carry all of the dreadful weapons which
had originated on that strange body. But he did not know that his own
ships were insulated against most of the rays used by the Zar's forces.
He knew only that he must fight; fight and kill; exterminate every last
one of the Zar's adherents or be exterminated in the attempt.

Kill! Kill! The madness was contagious. His pilot was a marvel and drove
his ship straight for the massed ships of the foe. The air was vivid
with light-streamers. A ray from an enemy vessel struck the thick glass
of the port through which he looked and the outer surface was shattered
and pock-marked. But a cloud of vapor and a dripping stream of fiery
liquid told him his own ray had taken effect on a vessel of the enemy.
One! They wheeled about and spiraled, coming up under another of the
Zar's aeros. It vanished in a puff of steam and they narrowly missed
being covered by the falling remnants of incandescent liquid. Two!
Karl's aim was good and he gloated in the fact. Three! They climbed and
turned over, dropping again into the fray. Four!

The air grew stifling, for the expended energy of the enemies' rays must
needs be absorbed. It could not disintegrate them nor decompose their
bodies, but the contacts were many and the liberation of heat enormous.
They were suffocating! But Karl would not desist. They drove on, now
beneath, now above an enemy ship. He lost count.

One of his own vessels was in trouble. The report came to him from the
little speaker at his ear. He looked around in alarm. A glowin