ving long before its appearance was expected. Before its terrific
acceleration and savage onslaught, the superplane might as well have
been stationary and unarmed. After his long dive downward, King could
not even leave the atmosphere--the hexan was upon them within a few
seconds, even though the stupendous battery of rockets, full driven,
had roared almost instantly into desperate action. Bomb after bomb
Breckenridge hurled, with full radio control, fighting with every
resource at his command, but in vain. The frightful torpedoes were
annihilated in mid-flight; and nose, tail-assembly, and wings were
sheared neatly from the warplane by a sizzling plane of force. Side
rockets and torpedo tubes were likewise sliced away and the helpless
body of the Callistonian cruiser, falling like a plummet, was caught and
held by a tractor ray. Captor and captive settled toward the ground.

"This is a signal honor," observed Captain Czuv when he had revived. "It
has been many, many cycles since they have taken Callistonians captive.
They kill us at every opportunity. Is it your custom to destroy
yourselves in a situation such as this?"

"It is not. While we live there is hope."

"Not ours. Unless they have made enormous strides in psychological
mechanisms, they cannot tear from our minds any secrets we really wish
to keep. That is useless," he went on, as King lifted a hand-weapon.
"You will have no opportunity whatever to use it," and he was right.

A searing beam of energy drove them out of the vessel, then
electro-magnetic waves burned every metallic object out of their
possession. Burning rays herded them into the hexan sphere and into
a small room, whose door clanged shut behind them.

"Ah, two are humans of a strange breed!" a snarling voice barked
from the wall, in the Callistonian language. "Our deductions were
accurate, as usual--it is to the humans of Planet Three, whose bodies
are a trifle less puny than those of the humanity of the satellites,
that we owe our recent reverses. However, those reverses were merely
temporary--humanity, no matter what its breed, shall very shortly
disappear from the satellites. Now, you scum of the Solar System, you
shall be permitted to witness an entrancing spectacle on the way to our
headquarters, where all your knowledge is to be taken from you before
you die, lingeringly and horribly. There is a strange space-vessel
nearing us probably searching for the one we took and which you dogs o