ttractors, at the point where the force of those peculiar magnets was
exactly balanced by the outward thrust of the repellers. By manipulating
the attractor holding it, Seaton brought the strange tubular weapon into
the control-room through a small air-lock in the wall and examined it
curiously, but did not touch it.

"I never heard of a hand-ray before, so I guess I won't play with it
much until after I learn something about it."

"So you have taken a captive?" asked Margaret. "What are you going to do
with him?"

"I'm going to drag him in here and read his mind. He's one of the
officers of that ship, I believe, and I'm going to find out how to build
one exactly like it. This old can is now as obsolete as a 1920 flivver,
and I'm going to make us a later model. How about it, Mart, don't we
want something really up-to-date if we're going to keep on
space-hopping?"

"We certainty do. Those denizens seem to be particularly venomous, and
we will not be safe unless we have the most powerful and most efficient
space-ship possible. However, that fellow may be dangerous, even now--in
fact, it is practically certain that he is."

"You chirped it, ace. I'd much rather touch a pound of dry nitrogen
iodide. I've got him spread-eagled so that he can't destroy his brain
until after we've read it, though, so there's no particular hurry about
him. We'll leave him out there for a while, to waste his sweetness on
the desert air. Let's all look around for the _Kondal_. I sure hope they
didn't get her in that fracas."

They diffused the rays of eight giant searchlights into a vertical fan,
and with it swept slowly through almost a semi-circle before anything
was seen. Then there was revealed a cluster of cylindrical objects amid
a mass of wreckage, which Crane recognized at once.

"The _Kondal_ is gone, Dick. There is what is left of her, and most of
her cargo of salt, in jute bags."

As he spoke, a series of green flashes played upon the bags, and Seaton
yelled in relief.

"They got the ship all right, but Dunark and Sitar got away--they're
still with their salt!"

The _Skylark_ moved over to the wreck and Seaton, relinquishing the
controls to Crane, donned a vacuum suit, entered the main air-lock and
snapped on the motor which sealed off the lock, pumped the air into a
pressure-tank, and opened the outside door. He threw a light line to the
two figures and pushed himself lightly toward them. He then talked
briefly to Dunark