with the shrill cries of the aliens. Gregory
noticed that there was congestion of lights on his left wing. He
reflected suddenly that that was where the _Curlew_ was stationed. And
Dickie Lang was on the _Curlew_. Why had the girl persisted in her
determination to take an active part in the conflict? Perhaps she might
be already wounded. Hit by a piece of flying iron or a wine-bottle.

"How about it?" Howard's voice recalled him to his plan of battle.

Gregory looked hastily along his front line. "All right," he exclaimed.
"Go to it."

The _Pelican's_ whistle shrieked two shrill blasts in reply, the signal
for every man at the wheel to go full ahead and put his respective craft
hard over.

Mascola cursed volubly at the increasing jumble of his boats. They had
already lost their way and were only tending to raise a further barrier
to his entrance to the fleet. If he rammed, he must ram his own boats as
well as those of the enemy. It flashed over his heated brain that the
American had chosen a difficult position for him to break through. The
narrowness of the sea-way prevented him from engaging them in mass
formation. Then he became conscious of another fact as two sharp
whistles sounded above the uproar. His lead boats were being crowded
back against their fellows with a twisting movement which was carrying
them in the direction of the reef. The channel had been too narrow to
break through the solid wall of Diesels. A puff of wind from the
southeast helped Mascola to make up his mind. Directing a summary
withdrawal, he sped away toward the reef to pilot his boats again to
safety from the dangerous shore.

Gregory directed the pivot movement of the cannery wedge until the last
of the alien fleet had fled from the channel. In the first preliminary
engagement, the enemy had been beaten back. At what cost he must find
out at once. As he turned about to signal the _Richard_, a voice which
he recognized as Hawkins', came to him from the darkness astern.

"Bronson's knocked out."

Leaving Howard to supervise the return of the advance line to their
original positions, Gregory instructed the sailors to launch a dory over
the rail of the _Pelican_ and was rowed away in the direction of the
_Richard_.

Hawkins had but little to tell. The _Richard_ had been plying about
according to orders, to report any break in the wedge. As she skirted
the right end close to the _Snipe_, some one had thrown a bottle from
the nearest ene