sses of
red hot, molten, and gaseous metal.

A full two-thirds of Roger's force was caught in that raging,
incandescent beam; caught and obliterated: but the remainder did not
retreat to the planetoid. Darting out around the edge of the cone at a
stupendous acceleration, they attacked its flanks and the engagement
became general. But now, since enough beams were kept upon each ship of
the enemy so that invisibility could not be restored, each Triplanetary
war vessel could attack with full efficiency. Magnesium flares and
star-shells illuminated space for a thousand miles, and from every unit
of both fleets was being hurled every item of solid, explosive, and
vibratory destruction known to the highly scientific warfare of that
age. Offensive beams, rods and daggers of frightful power struck and
were neutralized by defensive screens equally capable; the long range
and furious dodging made ordinary solid or high-explosive projectiles
useless; and both sides were filling all space with such a volume of
blanketing frequencies that such radio-dirigible torpedoes as were
launched could not be controlled, but darted madly and erratically
hither and thither, finally to be exploded harmlessly in mid-space by
the touch of some fiercely insistent, probing beam of force.

Individually, however, the pirate vessels were far more powerful than
those of the fleet, and that superiority soon began to make itself felt.
The power of the smaller ships began to fail as their accumulators
became discharged under the awful drain of the battle, and vessel after
vessel of the Triplanetary fleet was hurled into nothingness by the
concentrated blasts of the pirates' rays. But the Triplanetary forces
had one great advantage. In furious haste the Secret Service men had
been altering the controls of the radio-dirigible torpedoes, so that
they would respond to ultra-wave control; and, few in number though they
were, each was highly effective.

A hard-eyed observer, face almost against his plate and both hands and
both feet manipulating controls, hurled the first torpedo. Propelling
rockets viciously aflame, it twisted and looped around the incandescent
rods of destruction so thickly and starkly outlined, under perfect
control; unaffected by the hideous distortion of all ether-borne
signals. Through a pirate screen it went, and under the terrific blast
of its detonation one entire panel of the stricken battleship vanished,
crumpled and broken. It sho