nversed together, when they spoke of important matters which they
wished hidden from their captors, out of the corners of their mouths
after the method of criminals. They used it with elaborate unconcern.
They might have seemed to be simply staring into space at such moments,
dreading approaching death perhaps, and simply twiddling their fingers.
But by each other every word was clearly heard.

"That last outburst of Sitsumi's explains a lot of the reported activity
in the Lake Baikal region, beyond the Gobi," swiftly dropped from
Jeter's lips. "The materials which Sitsumi uses in the preparation of
his light-ray-bending substance are found near there somehow. And that
means that the Japanese guards--which may be Eurasian guards, after what
Sitsumi told us--and employees of this unholy crowd, are easily engaged
in the preparation of other space ships."

"Does this thing seem to have any armament?" asked Eyer.

Jeter signified negation with a swift movement of his head.

"Their one weapon seems to be the apparatus which causes that ray. You
know, the ray which lifts buildings, pulling them up by the roots."

"Have you any idea what it is?"

"Yes. That last stuff of the Three which you translated for me gives me
a clue. At first I thought that they had perfected some substance,
perhaps with unknown electrical properties, which nullified gravity. But
that won't prove out. If the ray simply nullified gravity, the buildings
down there, while weightless, would not rise as they did. They might
sway if somebody breathed against them. A midget might lift one with his
finger; but they wouldn't fly skyward as they did--and do!"

For a moment the partners ceased their whispering and talked together
naturally to disarm suspicion. The fact that the space ship and its
ruthless denizens still engaged in the awful work of devastation was
amply being proved. In the main room it was possible, through the use of
telescopes and audiphones--set into the walls so that they were
invisible, yet enabled any one in the room to see everything, and hear
everything that transpired on the far earth below--to keep close watch
on the work of the destroyers. Anything close enough could be seen with
the naked eye through the walls of the globe.

* * * * *

Now the space ship was systematically destroying buildings the length
and breadth of Manhattan Island. The river-front buildings were
destroyed in a single sweep