tures through
production in terrific quantities of the quondarium light which I
theorized about last year! But he can't have done that without playing
hell with the action of magnetic forces from beginning to end! I believe
if we take the gun aft and direct it at--"

That was as far as I got with forming words. I flung myself toward the
gun and began to drag it to a position aft, where we might direct its
ray full force, at close range, against the magnetic metal plate which
held the cable to our stern.

"Help me!" I yelled at the others.

Koto was the first to close in. Struggling, slipping, hampered rather
than helped by our great strength, we clawed our way aft. A combined
lurch of ship and blast of wind threw Captain Crane down, but she
staggered up.

We dropped the gun with a thump at a spot where the bulging curve of the
stern swelled directly under the muzzle. I grabbed at the trigger just
as a new surge of movement brought the flier perilously close to a
great, inrushing wall of water which was not water. Koto's face was
drawn, and Virginia Crane was staring in horrified fascination at the
gun.

* * * * *

Again came the faint trembling of the beautifully constructed mechanism.
The green ray leaped out across the blinding whiteness of our light
rays. I jammed the muzzle down until the whole force of the atomic
stream was spouting against the magnetic plate which held the cable to
our stern.

"Look, Doctor! Look!" Captain Crane cried.

But I was already looking.

For an instant a flash of blue light played about our ship. There was a
single sharp, crackling sound; and, ringing in the night, an echoing,
high-pitched twang.

Koto let out a shout. I took my hands away from the gun.

Backward the twanging cable snapped, demolishing with one touch a score
of the clustering Orconites. Into the waves it snapped, and our ship,
ceasing to move, came to rest upon the glittering pebbles of the beach.

I heaved a deep sigh.

"What came to me a moment ago," I said breathlessly to the others, "was
the idea that when atomic structures are so juggled that they are no
longer affected by the gun, all the forces of magnetism, which usually
are immune to the atomic stream, are rendered liable to disruption by
it. We could not destroy Leider's cable, but we could play the deuce
with its magnetic grip on us."

Koto was looking at me wide-eyed, and I saw that his interest wa