he fields of the T-247 and Pluto down
there. It's our only hope."

"What happened? How in the name of the planets did they kill those men
without a sound, without a flash, and without even warning us, or
injuring us?"

"Neutrons--don't you see?"

"Frankly, I don't. I'm no scientist--merely a technician. Neutrons
aren't used in any process I've run across."

"Well, remember they're uncharged, tiny things. Small as protons, but
without electric field. The result is they pass right through an
ordinary atom without being stopped unless they make a direct hit.
Tungsten, while it has a beautifully high melting point, is mostly open
space, and a neutron just sails right through it, or any heavy atom.
Light atoms stop neutrons better--there's less open space in 'em.
Hydrogen is best. Well--a man is made up mostly of light elements, and a
man stops those neutrons--it isn't surprising it killed those other
fellows invisibly, and without a sound."

"You mean they bathed that ship in neutrons?"

"Shot it full of 'em. Just like our proton guns, only sending neutrons."

"Well, why weren't we killed too?"

"'Water stops neutrons,' I said. Figure it out."

"The rocket-water tanks--all around us! Great masses of water--" gasped
Cole. "That saved us?"

"Right. I wonder if they've spotted us."

* * * * *

The stranger ship was moving slowly in relation to the T-247. Suddenly
the motion changed, the stranger spun--and a giant lock appeared in her
side, opened. The T-247 began to move, floated more and more rapidly
straight for the lock. Her various weapons had stopped operating now,
the hoppers of the Garnell guns exhausted, the charge of the
accumulators aboard the ship down so low the proton guns had died out.

"Lord--they're taking the whole ship!"

"Say--Cole, is that any ship you ever heard of before? _I don't think
that's just a pirate!_"

"Not a pirate--what then?"

"How'd he get inside our detector screens so fast? Watch--he'll either
leave, or come after us--" The T-247 had settled inside the lock now,
and the great metal door closed after it. The whole patrol ship had been
swallowed by a giant. Kendall was sketching swiftly on a notebook,
watching the vast ship closely, putting down a record of its lines, and
formation. He glanced up at it, and then down for a few more lines, and
up at it--

The stranger ship abruptly dwindled. It dwindled with incredible speed,
rushing off al