Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930

to his question. He had wondered in a puzzled fashion why the great ship had shown its mysterious presence over the flying field. He had ques

reat shape over Mount Lawson, he would have known beyond doubt that here wa

light from an open door struck across an open space beyond which McGuire and Professor Sykes stood alone, stood silent and spellbound, their heads cra

ealment. The moon was up now to illumine the scene, and it showed plainly the gleaming

the air-" He stopped his half-unconscious analysis abruptly. "The air!" What had this craft to do with the air? A thin layer of g

ant McGuire found that it was easier to see an imaginary craft taking off into space than to conceive of thi

looked at the unbelievable reality and tried to picture what

nt thousand feet in the air. And its huge bulk was dwarfing the giant pines, the rou

t, and the memory returned to him now. What did these new-comers think of them? Had they, too, found them suggestive of forts on the frontier of a world, defenses against invasion from out th

what this stranger might mean. The light of his plane slanted down in an easy descent; the flyer was gliding in on a long aerial toboggan slide. His motor was throttled;

ilent man gripped an imaginary stick while he wished with his whole heart that he was up in the air. To be with Blake or the other

swept in a great circle about the big ship. He was looking it over, but he began his inspection at a distance, and the orbit of his plane mad

he path of the tiny plane. And Blake, as he leaned forward on the stick to throw his plane downward in a power dive, cou

s as he saw Blake pull his little ship out of

hat's flying! I wonder, did they mean to

again the pilot with superb skill waited until the last moment and threw himself out of the path of the oncoming mass, though his own plane was tossed and w

could span across to the man in the

n actual line of light as the moon marked its course. And the curved line straig

rantic leap that ended as before in the maelstrom of air back of the ship. But the muffled roar was changed, punctured with a machine-gun's familiar rat

hold it to its course; the faster it went the more difficult to swerve it from a line. This and much more was flashing sharply i

uadron were diving from the heights. They came on a steep slant that seemed marking them for crashing death against the huge cylinder flashing past. And their stabbing needles of machine-gun fire made a d

to the colonel, but the thought left him as quickly as it came. He was frozen in

of the defenders were climbing desperately for advantage. So

full moon showed plainly now what McGuire had seen but dimly before-a great metal beak on t

roaching slowly: was it damaged? McGuire hardly dared hope ... yet that raking fire might well have been deadly:

planes. Then, throwing itself through the air, it

re motionless. Its orbit was flat with the ground: then tilting, more yet, it made a last circle that stood like a hoop in the air. And behind it as it circled it left a faint trace of vapo

man: "gas! What is it? Why

g: they blossomed and mushroomed, and the light of the

rayed-and he stood in voiceles

And he saw with staring, fear-filled eyes the clumsy tumbling and fluttering of unguided wings as

eive the maimed, stricken things that came fluttering or swooping wildly to that las

as long to his stumbling feet. He was blinded: his mind would not function: he saw only those flutte

ving eyes. That one man had lived, escaped the net-it was inconceivable! The plane returned

to pancake and crash where the towering pines ma

-for he had cut his motor. McGuire screamed out for Professor Sykes, and there were others, too, who came running at his call. He tore recklessly through the scrub and

white and ghastly as they released him and drew him out. But one hand still clung with a grip like death i

ceiling. He saw what the others were getting, and he flew himself through on a jet of pure oxygen-" He

voice of Professor Sykes. "Leave him here in the air. He must have got a whiff of their d

where a telephone was ringing wildly and a colonel of the air force must be told

ar. A general's uniform was gleaming in the light to make more sober by contrast the civil

hey saw the blood recede from his face, while

It attacked with gas, you say?... And why did not our own planes escape?... Its speed!-yes, we'll h

e, "-the 91st-is destroyed. The enemy put them down with one blow; enveloped them with

t-the enemy ship-

crashing fall-a loud, panting breath. He heard the breathing close to the distant

ringing of any and all phones about the observatory,

mmercial flying field near the base of Mount Lawson.