far away from the city.

Torlos seemed to realize this. Moving quickly, he pushed Morey away from
the molecular beam projector, taking the controls away from him.

He did not realize the power of that ray; he did not know that these
projectors could move whole suns out of their orbits. He only knew that
they were destructive. They were several miles from the city when he
turned the projector on it, after twisting the power control up.

To his amazement, he saw the entire city suddenly leap into the air and
flash out into space, a howling meteor that vanished into the cloudbank
overhead. Behind it was a deep hole in the planet's surface, a mighty
chasm lined with dark granite.

Torlos stared at it in amazement and horror.

Arcot turned back slowly, and they sailed over the spot where the city
had been. They saw a dozen or so battleships racing away from them to
spread the news of the disaster; they were the few which had been
fortunate enough to be outside the city when the beam struck.

Arcot maneuvered the ship directly over the mighty pit and sank slowly
down, using the great searchlights to illuminate the dark chasm. Far,
far down, he could see the solid rock of the bottom. The thing was miles
deep.

Then Arcot lifted the ship and headed up through the cloud layer and
into the bright light of the great yellow sun, above the sea of gray
misty clouds.

Arcot signalled Morey, who had come into the control room, to take over
the controls of the ship. "Head out into space, Morey. I want to find
out why Torlos pulled that last stunt. Wade, will you put a new tube in
the invisibility unit?"

"Sure," Wade replied. "By the way, what happened back there? We were
surprised as the very devil to hear you yelling for help; everything
seemed peaceful up to then."

Arcot flexed his bruised hands and grinned ruefully. "Plenty happened."
He went on to explain to Wade and Fuller what had happened in their
meeting with the Satorian Commander.

"Nice bunch of people to deal with," Wade said caustically. "They tried
to get everything and lost it all. We would have given them plenty if
they'd been decent about it. But what sort of war is this that the
people of these two planets are carrying on, anyway?"

"That's the question I intend to settle," replied Arcot. "We haven't had
an opportunity to talk to Torlos yet. He had just admitted to me that he
was a spy for Nansal when the fun began, and we've been too busy to ask
ques