truck at the
spot which had been almost emptied of people, and realized that blind
chance had caused it. For, in order for the Gens of Dalis to be in
position to launch their attack against the Moon, he had managed, by
manipulating the speed of the Beryls, to bring that area into position
directly opposite the Moon.

Had it been otherwise, the blue column might have struck anywhere, and
wiped out millions of lives!

"God, Jaska," murmured Sarka. "Look!"

Think of a shoreline, once lined with mighty buildings, after the
passage of a tidal wave greater than ever before known to man. The
devastation would be indescribable. Multiply that shoreline by the vast
area which had housed the Gens of Dalis, and the mental picture is
almost too big to grasp. Chaos, catastrophe, approaching an infinity of
destruction.

The materials of which the vast buildings, set close together, had been
made, had been twisted into grotesque, nightmarish shapes, and the whole
fused into a burned and gleaming mass--which covered half of what had
once been a mighty ocean--as though a bomb larger and more devastating
than ever imagined of man, a bomb large enough to rock the Earth, had
landed in the midst of the area once occupied by the Gens of Dalis!

Yet, Sarka knew, remembering the murmuring of the blue column as it came
out of the cone, all this devastation had been caused in almost absolute
silence. People could have watched and seen these deserted buildings
slowly fuse together, run together as molten metal runs together, like
the lava from a volcano of long ago under the ponderous moving to and
fro of some invisible, juggernautlike agency.

* * * * *

Sarka shuddered, trying to picture in his mind the massing of the
minions of Mars, who thus saw a new country given into their hands--if
they could take it. Had the Earth been taken by surprise? Had Sarka the
Second been able to prepare for the approaching catastrophe?

"Father," he sent his thoughts racing on ahead of him, "are those lights
which are striking the Earth causing any damage?"

"Only," came back the instant answer, "in that they destroy the courage
of the people of the Earth! The people, however, now know that Sarka is
returning, and their courage rises again! The flames are merely a hint
of what faces us; but the people will rise and follow you wherever you
lead!"

So, as they raced across the area of devastation, the face of Sarka
became