er second, no matter how he is braced, and that
is only a little greater than the normal gravity of our enemies upon
Jupiter. Their vessels at highest power develop an acceleration of
thirty-five meters, and the hexans themselves can stand much more than
even that high figure," replied Czuv.

"I thought so. Assume that you traveled at forty-five. Would it disable
you permanently, or would you recover as soon as it was lowered?"

"We would recover promptly, unless the exposure had been unduly
prolonged. Why?"

"Because," said King, "I can stand an acceleration of fifty-four meters
for two hours, and Breckenridge here tests fifty two meters. I can
navigate anything, and Breckenridge can observe as well as any of your
own men. Build a plane to accelerate at forty-five meters and we will
blow those hexans out of the ether. You will have to revive and do the
shooting, however--your gunnery is entirely beyond us."

"That is an idea of promise, and one that had not occurred to any of
us," Czuv replied and work was begun at once upon the new flyer.

When the super-plane was ready for its maiden voyage, its crew of three
studied it as it lay in the catapult at the portal. Dead black as were
all the warplanes, its body was twice as large as that of the ordinary
vessel, its wings were even more stubby, and its accommodations had been
cut to a minimum to make room for the enormous stores of fuel necessary
to drive the greatly increased battery of rocket motors and for the
extra supply of torpedoes carried. Waving to the group of soldiers and
citizens gathered to witness the take-off of the new dreadnought of
space, the three men entered the cramped operating compartment, strapped
themselves into their seats, and were shot away. As usual the driving
rockets were cut off well below the rim of the shaft, and the vessel
rose in a long and graceful curve, invisible in the night. Such was its
initial velocity and so slight was the force of gravity of the satellite
that they were many hundreds of miles from the exit before they began to
descend, and Breckenridge studied his screens narrowly for signs of
hexan activity.

"Do you want to try one of your long-range shots when we find one of
them?" the pilot asked Czuv.

"No, it would be useless. Between deflection by air-currents and the
dodging of the enemy vessels, our effective range is shortened to a few
kilometers, and their beams are deadly at that distance. No, our best
course