."

"Remember the little tube you saw before--that's why I asked about the
wire. I knew he would have to ground it without its going through his
body."

Danny O'Rourke was an intent listener now. When the Infant talked like
this he was a person to be listened to with respect, even if all he
said was not understood.

"Now," said the Infant with finality, "let's forget this idea of
ramming him. You couldn't hit him anyway; even a cruiser couldn't do
it. If it could you would have radioed for a squadron an hour ago--you
know that."

* * * * *

The pilot nodded his acknowledgment. "But, my God, man," he exploded,
"I've got to do something; I've got to try!"

"We'll do it," was the confident reply, "--or I will. Now we'll go
back to the Consolidated Electric; they will have the Sorenson
disintegrator ready. I'll put it in your machine and--"

"And what?" broke in the pilot. "Is this some new death ray? We've
been hearing about them for years--just hearing about them. If that's
what you mean, then your idea is all wet; it's worse than mine. I'm
going up."

Perhaps the younger man saw something of the wild impatience in
Danny's deep-sunk eyes. He laid a restraining hand on the pilot's arm
while he explained:

"No death ray, Danny--that will come later; we haven't got it now. But
we've got the disintegration of matter--the splitting of the atom, on
something bigger than a laboratory scale. Sorenson did it. There is a
flood of electrical energy poured out--streams of electrons--negative
electricity. It leaves a positive charge that is tremendous if it
isn't neutralized.

"I said that devilish white thing was like a thunder-cloud; well, I'll
make your ship like the earth; then I'll bring them near each
other--no need to ram him--and it will be like the hammer of Thor--"

The Infant's words ended in a crackling roar from above. Danny
O'Rourke found his whole body tingling as if he were filled with
stinging sparks; each single fiber of each muscle was twitching.

A blue light shone eerily overhead. He bent his stiffened, jerking
neck till he could look--till he could see, with eyes that were filled
with flashing fires of their own, other ripping blue flashes from the
ends of outstanding wires, and above him a thousand feet, the belly of
a white ship.

And through the brain-hammering clatter of the static discharge he
heard the voice of the Infant, whose words came jerkily between the