nt, and the others stared at him in surprise.

"No, I'm not crazy," he told them. "This is really funny; it had never
occurred to me that all these pirate ships are invisible to any ether
wave as long as they're using power. I can see them, of course, with
this sub-ether spy, but they can't see us! I knew that they should have
overtaken us before this. I've finally found them. They've passed us,
and are now tacking around, waiting for us to cut off our power for a
minute so that they can see us! They're heading right into the
Fleet--they think they're safe, of course, but what a surprise they've
got coming to them!"

But it was not only the pirates who were to be surprised. Long before
the pirate ship had come within extreme visibility range of the
Triplanetary Fleet, it lost its invisibility and was starkly outlined
upon the lookout plates of the three fugitives. For a few seconds the
pirate craft seemed unchanged, then it began to glow redly, with a red
that seemed to become darker as it grew stronger. Then the sharp
outlines blurred, puffs of air burst outward, and the metal of the hull
became a viscous, fluid-like something, flowing away in a long, red
streamer into seemingly empty space. Costigan turned his ultra-gaze into
that space and saw that it was actually far from empty. There lay a vast
something, formless and indefinite even to his sub-ethereal vision; a
something into which the viscid stream of transformed metal plunged.
Plunged, and vanished.

Powerful interference blanketed his ultra-wave and howled throughout his
body; but in the hope that some part of his message might get through he
called Samms, and calmly and clearly he narrated everything that had
just happened. He continued his crisp report, neglecting not the
smallest detail, while their tiny craft was drawn inexorably toward a
redly impermeable veil; continued it until their lifeboat, still intact,
shot through that veil and he found himself unable to move. He was
conscious, he was breathing normally, his heart was beating; but not a
voluntary muscle would obey his will.

CHAPTER III

Fleet Against Planetoid

One of the newest and fleetest of the Law Enforcement Vessels of the
Triplanetary League, the heavy cruiser _Chicago_, of the North American
Division of the Tellurian Contingent, plunged stolidly through
interplanetary vacuum. For five long weeks she had patrolled her
allotted volume of space. In another week she would rep