n below us. Miela and I lay prone, with our heads
projecting over its forward end. In this position we had an unobstructed,
though somewhat limited, view. The girls carrying us could see nothing.
They were guided by watching the other girls flying near them, and by
Miela's constant directions.

For some ten or fifteen minutes we circled about over the leading boat.
The Twilight shore was now almost over the horizon. The boats showed as
little black patches on the gray-black of the sea, but the lights flashing
up from them were plainly visible.

The boat that led the line was quite perceptibly drawing away from the
others. Already it was a thousand feet or more ahead of the nearest one
following. We waited through another period. This leading boat was now
beyond range of the others, and, being isolated, I decided to attack it.

"Miela," I said, "tell them all to maintain this level. You and I will go
down at that first boat. Have them all remain up here. Tell Mercer if
anything goes wrong with us to act as he thinks best."

We waited while these commands were circulated about. Mercer's platform
swept close over us, and he shouted: "We _won't_ stay up here."

I persuaded him finally, and then we directed our girls to circle slowly
downward with our platform. I ordered a slow descent, for I was in no mind
to rush blindly into range of their ray.

We drooped down in a spiral, until at about fifteen hundred feet I ordered
the girls to descend no farther. So far as I could make out now, this boat
was protected from above by a broad overhanging canopy. Its sides
evidently were open, or nearly so, for we could see now the smaller rays
flashing out horizontally.

The large projector was mounted in the bow beyond the canopy. Its beam
obviously could be directed into the air, for it was now swinging up
toward us. But in the horizontal position its range was limited to an arc
in front of the boat. I saw then that our play was to attack from a low
level, since only in that way could we expect to reach a vulnerable spot
in the boat's armor. And I believed that if we could keep behind it they
could not reach us with their larger projector.

We swooped downward almost to the water level, and reached it a thousand
feet perhaps off to one side of the boat and partly behind it. The smaller
projectors flashed out at us, but we were beyond their range. The
projector in the bow swung back and forth, and as we skimmed the surface
of t