vier, clumsier. Elza and I had practiced with the others for days;
and with our harmless duelling rays I had found that I could never hope
to hit her while she dealt me mortal blows.

Elza, commanding a squad of twenty girls, was assigned to a portion of
the line some helans from me. My own place, with a hundred men under me,
was near a tower almost on the opposite side from the power house.

It was a solemn parting from Elza. I wrapped her in my arms, tried to
smile. "Be very--careful, Elza."

She kissed me, clung to me; then cast me off and was gone.

With the city invested, we rested idly for another time of sleep.
Occasionally we made a tentative tower attack which came to nothing.
Tarrano waited; his barrage remained the same. We tried to provoke a
move from him, but could not.

The snow-plain where I was stationed here was similar to the other side,
save that there were no mountains. From the power house to Tarrano's
wall there was a dip, so that the wall stood upon higher ground. On my
side, however, the reverse was true. The wall lay in a hollow in one
place, with a steady upward slope back from it to uplands behind us, as
though in some better day a broad watercourse had flowed down here, now
long since buried in solid ice and snow.

I mention this topography because it had a vital bearing upon what so
soon was to transpire.

Rhaalton desired that Tarrano come out and attack us; but Tarrano would
not. We thought perhaps that his offense was inadequate and the one move
that he made strengthened that belief. From the city beside the palace,
a rectangle of black metal some fifty feet square, rose slowly up. In
aspect it was a square, windowless room--a room without a ceiling, open
at the top. It rose to a height of five hundred feet and hung level. And
from it depended dangling power cables connecting it with the ground.

It was the presence of these cables that made us feel Tarrano was
offensively weak. He could not aerially transport his power; hence, for
offense he could only rely upon individual batteries which, unless
permanently stationed within the city, we knew would have a short range
at best. We watched this thing in the air for hours. It did not move; it
was soundless. What was its purpose? We could not guess.

And then at last, Geno-Rhaalton ordered us all to the attack.

CHAPTER XXXVII

_Battle_

I found myself in the air; with my men around me we hovered. Then
Georg's command fr