igh altitude and disappeared--"

"It's another one of those damned things," asserted Stanton. "That
couldn't go a thousand miles a minute!"

"It can go faster than that, if I am not mistaken," said Fragoni. And it
presently appeared that he was right, for in a couple of minutes the
radiovisor transmitted the news that it was over San Francisco, where it
remained for only a few seconds. It was not more than a minute later
that word came from Shanghai that it had passed slowly over that city.
Then again it was poised high over Manhattan, crimson with heat.

"Is there any possible defense against it, Steinholt?" Fragoni asked.
The Teuton shook his head with an air of finality.

"None," he said, "as far as I can determine now. We can create and
direct artificial lightning that would reduce this building to a mass of
powdered stone and fused metal in a fraction of a second. But I am
certain that it wouldn't leave as much as a scratch on that monster up
there. We might try the Z-Rays on it, but an intelligence that could
devise such a craft would undoubtedly have the wisdom to protect it
against such an elementary menace as rays. Even the mightiest explosives
that we have wouldn't send a tremor through that mighty mass."

* * * * *

"Why not await developments?" asked Dirk. "We do not even know the
nature of the thing we are trying to combat."

"It's solid metal," insisted Stanton tenaciously. "It's a metal body
with a metal brain."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Steinholt. "It seems quite apparent that the
craft has come from another planet, and, if I am not greatly mistaken,
there are intelligent creatures inside it."

"In any event," said Dirk, "it seems impractical to make any plans until
we know more about it. I suggest that we empower Fragoni to act for the
rest of us in this matter."

"That is very agreeable to me," said Steinholt. "A crisis very possibly
may arise in which the quick judgment of one man may be necessary to
avert the danger that always is inherent in delay."

"You hold my proxy," Lazarre said to Fragoni, "and I assume that Stanton
is agreeable to this procedure."

"--the thing is moving very slowly eastward in the direction of Long
Island Sound. It is, at the same time, losing altitude. Its movements
are being carefully watched. As yet we see no cause for immediate
alarm--people are advised to remain calm--"

"Yes, I am agreeable," said Stanton nervously and h