nd trembling hand where a towering spire of metallic gray leaned
slowly in the air. So slowly it moved, to the eyes of the watchers--a
great arc of gathering force and speed that shattered the ground where
it struck.

"The gun!" was all that the still-dazed lieutenant could say.
"The--the gun!" And he fell to shivering uncontrollably, while tears
of pure happiness streamed down his face.

The mammoth siege gun--the only weapon for bombardment of the helpless
Earth--was a mass of useless metal, a futile thing that lay twisted
and battered on the sands of the sea.

* * * * *

The submarine now showed at a distance; it had withdrawn, by
prearrangement, to the shelter of the deeper water. McGuire looked
carefully at the watch on his wrist, and listened to make certain that
the explosion had not stopped it. Sykes had told him the length of the
Venusian day--twenty hours and nineteen minutes of Earth time, and he
had made his calculations from the day of the Venusians. And, morning
and night, McGuire had set his watch back and had learned to make a
rough approximation of the time of that world.

The watch now said five-thirteen, and the sun was almost gone; a line
of gold in the western sky; and McGuire knew that it was a matter only
of minutes till the blast of the big gun would rock the island. One
heavy section of the great barrel was resting upon the shattered base,
and McGuire realized that this blocking of the monster's throat must
mean it would tear itself and the island around it to fragments when
it fired. He ran toward the beach and waved his arms wildly in air to
urge on the speeding craft that showed dim and vague across the
heaving sea.

It drove swiftly toward them and stopped for the launching of the
little boat. There was a delay, and McGuire stood quivering with
impatience where the others, too, watched the huddle of figures on the
submarine's deck.

It was Althora who first sensed their danger. Her voice was shrill
with terror as she seized McGuire's arm and pointed landward.

"Tommy--Tommy!" she said. "They are coming! I saw them!"

* * * * *

A swarming of red figures over the nearby dunes gave quick
confirmation of her words. McGuire looked about him for a
weapon--anything to add efficiency to his bare hands--and the swarm
was upon them as he looked.

He leaped quickly between Althora and the nearest figures that
stretched out gr