--and I've heard nothing from him since. Therefore
I want you to stay out of the battle entirely. Stay as far away from it
as you can and still get good pictures of everything that happens. I
will see that orders are issued to the _Chicago_ to that effect."

"But listen...."

"Those are orders!" snapped Samms. "It is of the utmost importance that
we know every detail of what is going to happen. The answer is pictures.
The only possibility of obtaining pictures is that machine you have just
developed. If the fleet wins, nothing will be lost. If the fleet
loses--and I am not half as confident of success as the Admiral is--the
_Chicago_ doesn't carry enough power to decide the issue, and we will
have the pictures to study, which is all-important. Besides, we have
probably lost Conway Costigan today, and we don't want to lose _you_,
too."

Cleveland remained silent, pondering this startling news, but the
grizzled Captain, veteran of the Fourth Jovian War that he was, was not
convinced.

"We'll blow them out of space, Mr. Samms!" he declared.

"You just think you will, Captain. I have suggested, as forcibly as
possible, that the general attack be withheld until after a thorough
investigation is made, but the Admiralty will not listen. They see the
advisability of withdrawing a camera ship, but that is as far as they
will go."

"And that's plenty far enough!" growled the _Chicago's_ commander, as
the beam snapped off. "Mr. Cleveland, I don't like the idea of running
away under fire, and I won't do it without direct orders from the
Admiral."

"Of course you won't--that's why you are going...."

He was interrupted by a voice from the Headquarters speaker. The captain
stepped up to the plate and, upon being recognized, he received the
exact orders which had been requested by the Chief of the Triplanetary
Service.

Thus it was that the _Chicago_ reversed her acceleration, cut off her
red screen, and fell rapidly behind, while the vessels following her
shot away toward another crimson-flaring loader. Farther and farther
back she dropped, back to the limiting range of the mechanism upon which
Cleveland and his highly-trained assistants were hard at work. And
during all this time the forces of the seven sectors had been
concentrating. The pilot vessels, with their flaming red screens, each
followed by a cone of space-ships, drew closer and closer together,
approaching the _Fearless_--the British super-dreadnought which w