rring explosions sent shudders through their craft. Ahead of them
bright flashes illumined the swirling fumes where bursting shells
marked the destruction of some ammunition stores outside the city.

And Danny, as he drove his red meteor into the clear air of the upper
levels, was searching the heavens above for the enemy he had expected
to sight down below. He knew now that his mad plunge into the seething
flames was only a blind impulse--an effort to satisfy that demand
within him for a foe upon whom to wreak revenge.

* * * * *

Beside him, his companion spun the dial of a receiving set for the
Airnews Service; a voice was shouting excitedly into their cabin:
"... physicists unable to find cause ... no meteoric material seen ...
new rays ... enormous temperatures ... some new and unknown conditions
encountered in space--"

"Hell!" said the Infant wearily, and snapped off the instrument.
"Meteors! New conditions in space! But, come to think of it, we can't
blame them for being off the trail. You know that the bird that's
doing this flies high and fast ... and when he stops there's nobody
left alive to tell of it!... And don't look for him here."

"Why not?" Danny demanded aggressively. "This ship isn't armed, but if
I get my sights on that flyin' devil--"

"You won't," said the Infant darkly. "He's off somewhere discharging
the load he's accumulated."

He reached for a map, stuck his finger on a point in eastern New York
State. "Let's go there, Danny--and I'd like to get there _right now_!"

And Danny O'Rourke, who, ordinarily was a bit particular about who
gave him orders, looked at the Infant's blue eyes that had gone hard
and cold, and he swung his roaring ship toward the north and a place
that was marked by a steady finger on the map.

* * * * *

New York was a place of flashing reflections far beneath them as they
passed. Danny pointed downward toward the miniature city, where a
silvery river met the sea; where a maze of flaming lights in all of
the colors of the spectrum gave indication of activity at the great
Navy Field.

"How did he miss it, the murderin' devil?" he asked. "How come that he
hit Washington first? Did he have some way of knowin' that it was the
heart of the whole country?"

"And why pick on us here in this country? Or are we just the first,
and will he spit his rage over the rest of the world before he's
through? It it