rrow field of vision, set at its maximum magnification. The
instruments showed that the enemy vessel was staying upon its original
course. Very soon the torpedo came within range of the detectors of the
hexans. But as Captain Czuv had foretold, the detection was a fraction
of a second too late, rapidly as their screens responded, and the two
men of Zbardk uttered together a short, fierce cry of joy as a brilliant
flash of light announced the annihilation of the hexan vessel.

"But hold!" The observer stared into his screen. "Upon that same line,
but now at constant velocity, there is still a very faint radiation,
of a pattern I have never seen before."

"I think ... I believe ..." the captain was studying the pattern,
puzzled. "It must be low frequency, low-tension electricity, which is
never used, so far as I know. It may be some new engine of destruction,
which the hexan was towing at such a distance that the explosion of our
torpedo did not destroy it. Since there are no signs of hexan activity
and since it will not take much fuel, we shall investigate that
radiation."

Tail and port-side rockets burst into roaring activity and soon the
plane was cautiously approaching the mass of wreckage, which had been
the IPV _Arcturus_.

"Human beings, although of some foreign species!" exclaimed the captain,
as his vision-ray swept through the undamaged upper portion of the great
liner and came to rest upon Captain King at his desk.

Although the upper ultra-lights of the Terrestrial vessel had been
cut away by the hexan plane of force, jury lights had been rigged,
and the two commanders were soon trying to communicate with each
other. Intelligible conversation was, of course, impossible, but King
soon realized that the visitors were not enemies. At their pantomimed
suggestion he put on a space-suit and wafted himself over to the airlock
of the Callistonian warplane. Inside the central compartment, the
strangers placed over his helmet a heavily wired harness, and he found
himself instantly in full mental communication with the Callistonian
commander. For several minutes they stood silent, exchanging thoughts
with a rapidity impossible in any language; then, dressed in
space-suits, both leaped lightly across the narrow gap into the still
open outer lock of the terrestrial liner. King watched Czuv narrowly
after the pressure began to collapse his suit, but the stranger made
no sign of distress. He had been right in his assur