e screens of the war-vessels; and one by one the supposedly
invincible space-ships of humanity dropped in horribly dismembered ruin
upon the ruins of what had once been Pittsburgh.

CHAPTER 15

SPECIMENS

Only too well founded was Costigan's conviction that the submarine of
the deep-sea fishes had not been able to prevail against Nerado's
formidable engines of destruction. For days the Nevian lifeboat with
its three Terrestrial passengers hurtled through the interstellar void
without incident, but finally the operative's fears were realized--his
far flung detector screens reacted; upon his observation plate they
could see Nerado's mammoth space-ship, in full pursuit of its fleeing
lifeboat!

"On your toes, folks--it won't be long now!" Costigan called, and
Bradley and Clio hurried into the tiny control room.

Armor donned and tested, the three Terrestrials stared into the
observation plates, watching the rapidly-enlarging picture of the Nevian
space-ship. Nerado had traced them and was following them, and such was
the power of the great vessel that the now inconceivable velocity of the
lifeboat was the veriest crawl in comparison to that of the pursuing
cruiser.

"And we've hardly started to cover the distance back to Tellus. Of
course you couldn't get in touch with anybody yet?" Bradley stated,
rather than asked.

"I kept trying, of course, until they blanketed my wave, but all
negative. Thousands of times too far for my transmitter. Our only hope
of reaching anybody was the mighty slim chance that our super-ship might
be prowling around out here already, but it isn't, of course. Here they
are!"

Reaching out to the control panel, Costigan viciously shot out against
the great vessel wave after wave of lethal vibrations, under whose
fiercely clinging impacts the Nevian defensive screens flared white;
but, strangely enough, their own screens did not radiate. As if
contemptuous of any weapons the lifeboat might wield, the mother ship
simply defended herself from the attacking beams, in much the same
fashion as a wildcat mother wards off the claws and teeth of her
spitting, snarling kitten who is resenting a touch of needed maternal
discipline.

"They probably wouldn't fight us, at that," Clio first understood the
situation. "This is their own lifeboat, and they want us alive, you
know."

"There's one more thing we can try--hang on!" Costigan snapped, as he
released his screens and threw all his powe