tering thing at the forepart
of the plane. But the ship reached the end of the slide and lifted,
and then was in mid-air, fifty feet above the vehicular way, a hundred
feet above the ground.

* * * * *

Tommy spoke urgently. Aten nodded. The ship had started to climb. He
leveled it out and darted straight forward. He swung madly to dodge a
soaring tower. He swept upward a little to avoid a flying bridge. The
ship was travelling with an enormous speed, and the golden walls of
the city flashed past below them and they sped away across feathery
jungle.

"If we climbed at once," observed Tommy shortly, "they'd think we
meant to fight. They might start their gassing. As it is, we look like
we're running away."

Evelyn said nothing. For five miles the plane fled as if in panic.
Evelyn clung to the filigree side of the cockpit. The city dwindled
behind them. Then Aten climbed steeply. Tommy was looking keenly at
the glittering thing which propelled the ship. It seemed like a
crystal gridwork, like angular lace contrived of glass. But a cold
blue flame burned in it and Tommy was obscurely reminded of a neon
tube, though the color was wholly unlike. A blast of air poured back
through the grid. Somehow, by some development of electro-statics, the
"static jet" which is merely a toy in Earth laboratories had become
usable as a means of propelling aircraft.

Back they swept toward the Golden City, five thousand feet or more
aloft. The ground was partly obscured by the hazy, humid atmosphere,
but glinting sun-reflections from the city guided them. Soaring things
took shape before them and grew swiftly nearer. Tommy spoke again,
busily loading the automatic rifle with explosive shells.

Aten swung to follow a vast dark shape in its circular soaring, a
hundred feet above it and a hundred yards behind. Wind whistled,
rising to a shriek. Tommy fired painstakingly.

* * * * *

The other plane zoomed suddenly as a flash of blue flame spouted
before it. It dived, then, fluttering and swooping, began to drift
helplessly toward the spires of the city below it.

"Good!" snapped Tommy. "Another one, Aten."

Aten made no reply. He flung his ship sidewise and dived steeply
before a monstrous freight carrier. Tommy fired deliberately as they
swept past. The propelling grid flashed blue flame in a vast, crashing
flame. It, too, began to flutter down.

Tommy did not miss un