, and came upon the small
park-like platform which stood at the bottom of the other tower. He had
passed within sight of a few pedestrians. One of them shouted at him;
another had tried mildly to stop him. A crowd on a distant terrace saw
him. A few of their personal flashes were turned his way. Murmurs arose.
Someone at the head of one of the escalators, in a panic pulled an
alarm-switch. It flared green into the sky, flashing its warning.

The interior-guards--seated at their instrument tables in the lower
rooms of the official buildings--had seen Georg in their finders. The
alarm was spreading. Lights were appearing everywhere.... The murmurs of
gathering people ... excited crowds ... an absurd woman leaning down
over a far-away parapet and screaming ... an ignorant, flustered
street-guard on a nearby upper terrace swinging his pencil-ray down at
Georg.... Fortunately it fell short.

For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult around
him--stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein the
Princess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles of
doors and casements, all open--but barred by the glow of the electrical
barrage surrounding it.

Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.
Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to use
it. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. He
hesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But he
knew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerial
mast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare of
white.

His finger pressed the trigger. A soundless flash of purple enveloped
the tower. Sparks mounted into the air--a cloud of vivid electrical
sparks; but mingled with them in a moment were sparks also of burning
wood and fibre. Smoke began to roll upward; the purple flash was gone,
and dull red took its place. The hum and angry buzz of outraged
electricity was stilled. Flames appeared at all the tower casements--red
flames, then yellow with their greater heat.

The trim and interior of the tower was burning. The protons Georg had
flung at it with his weapon had broken the electrical barrage. The
interference heat had burned out the connections and fired everything
combustible within the tower. A terrific heat. It began to melt and burn
the _blenite_.[10] The upper portion of the tower walls began to
crumble. Hu