g of lightness as if his body had no weight at
all; the ship rolled gently and he knew they were falling swiftly to the
inevitable crash. Yet he clung fast to Ora, and, together, they made
their way to the control room.

Faint daylight streamed in through the ports there and he saw Mado and
Detis, both bleeding from injuries they had received when the mysterious
shock hurled them amongst the control mechanisms. They were working
furiously with the exciter-generator, which had stopped. The _Nomad_ was
without power and helpless to exert her anti-gravity energy.

"The iron hail!" gasped the Europan scientist. "It gave up its charge,
Carr--exploded. Here, give us a hand and see if we can get the
generators started."

The ports were clear of the black particles and Carr saw that the outer
surface of the glass was cracked and darkened from the heat of the
blast. He understood, remembering the black band and the flash they had
seen across the cloud layer from afar. And in the instant of remembering
he saw that the ground was very near, rushing upward to meet them. A
coil of the exciter-armature broke away in his fingers; the thing had
been burned out by the electric storm, and the _Nomad_ was doomed.

The altimeter needle moved with sickening speed and already registered
but little more than five hundred feet. Four hundred! Carr braced
himself for the impending crash and gathered Ora in his arms.

And then a strange thing happened. Four light rays, dazzling in
intensity, stabbed up at them from the forest beneath them and converged
on the vessel's hull. The _Nomad_ staggered, then came to an even keel
and slackened in her mad dash to the surface. She vibrated from stem to
stern under the mighty conflict of energies and they felt themselves
pressed hard against the floor-plate. But the mysterious energy beams
had come too late to save them. A densely wooded slope loomed directly
ahead. There was a crashing of branches and the rending of mighty
trunks, and the _Nomad_ came to a jarring stop.

* * * * *

"Devils of Terra!" Mado ejaculated. "We're in a fine fix now. We'll have
to set foot on Titan whether we want to or not."

Carr had laughed, somewhat shakily, in relief. They were safe, all of
them, and no one much hurt. And the generator coils could be rewound.
But he sobered instantly at Mado's words; they'd have to produce copper
and insulating materials for the job.

"Right," he agree