s quickly
available; there are sixty extra pounds, which we can break out and load
into the magazines in a few seconds. Do you understand everything?"

"I guess so. Everything seems clear enough."

"All right; sit down and we'll start."

* * * * *

I took my seat, and Jim pulled the starting lever. I was glued to the
seat and the heavy springs in the cushion were compressed almost to
their limit by the sudden acceleration. As soon as we were well clear
of the ground Jim reduced his power, and in a few moments we were
floating motionless in the air, a thousand feet up. He left the control
board and came to my side.

"Start your ultra lights," he said as he joined me. "We may be able to
spot something from here."

I started the lights and we stared at the screens before us. Nothing
appeared on any of them except the one pointing directly down, and only
an image of the ground, appeared on it. Under Jim's tutelage I swung the
beams in wide circles, covering the space around us, but nothing
appeared.

"Those beams won't project over five miles in this atmosphere," he said,
"and the ship we are looking for may be so small that we would have
trouble locating it at any great distance. I am going to move over near
the scene of the last disappearance. Keep your lights swinging and sing
out if you see anything on the screens."

I could feel the ship start to move slowly under the force of a side
discharge from the rocket motor, and I swung the beams of the six lights
around, trying to cover the entire area about us. Nothing appeared on
the screens for an hour, and my head began to ache from the strain of
unremitting close observation of the glowing screens. A buzz sounding
over the hum of the rocket motor attracted my attention; Jim pulled his
levers to neutral with the exception of the one which maintained our
elevation and stepped to an instrument on the wall of the flyer.

"Hello," he called. "What? Where did it happen? All right, thanks, we'll
move over that way at once."

* * * * *

He turned from the radio telephone and spoke.

"Another disappearance has just been reported," he said. "It happened on
the outskirts of Pasadena. Keep your eyes open: I'm going to head in
that direction."

A few minutes later we were floating over Pasadena. Jim stopped the
flyer and joined me at the screens. We swung our beams in wide circles
to cover the entire area a