admirals, purple of face, who made heated remarks
about the lack of discipline in the army, and generals who turned
accusingly where the big figure of Colonel Boynton was still seated.

It was the Secretary of War who stilled the tumult and claimed the
privilege of administering the rebuke which was so plainly needed.
"Colonel Boynton," he said, and there was no effort to soften the
cutting edge of sarcasm in his voice, "it was at your request and
suggestion that this outrageous meeting was held. Have you any more
requests or suggestions?"

The colonel rose slowly to his feet.

"Yes, Mr. Secretary," he said coldly, "I have. I know Captain Blake.
He seldom makes promises; when he does he makes good. My suggestion is
that you do what the gentleman said--step outside and see your
technicalities knocked to hell." He moved unhurriedly toward the door.

* * * * *

It was a half-hour's wait, and one or two of the more openly skeptical
had left when the first roar came faintly from above. Colonel Boynton
led the others to the open ground before the building. "I have always
found Blake a man of his word," he said quietly, and pointed upward
where a tiny speck was falling from a cloud-flecked sky.

Captain Blake had had little training in the operation of the ship,
but he had flown it across the land and had concealed it where fellow
officers were sworn to secrecy. And he felt that he knew how to handle
the controls.

But the drop from those terrible heights was a fearful thing, and it
ended only a hundred feet above the heads of the cowering, shouting
humans who crouched under the thunderous blast, where a great shell
checked its vertical flight and rebounded to the skies.

Again and again the gleaming cylinder drove at them like a projectile
from the mortars of the gods, and it roared and thundered through the
air or turned to vanish with incredible speed straight up into the
heights, to return and fall again ... until finally it hung motionless
a foot above the grass from which the uniformed figures had fled. Only
Colonel Boynton was there to greet the flyer as he laid his strange
craft gently down.

"Nice little show, Captain," he said, while his broad face broke into
the widest of grins. "A damn nice little show! But take that look off
of your face. They'll listen to you now; they'll eat right out of your
hand."

CHAPTER XV

If Lieutenant McGuire could have erased from his mind