, sparring for time. "Well"--he
hesitated--"where were you when it happened?"

The man looked at him stupidly. "What?" he mumbled. "I--I don't seem to
remember. You see--I was in--the condenser room building up the
charge--for to-morrow--I mean to-day--sixty thousand volts at the
terminals, and the fluid clearing up. I guess I looked out of the window
a minute--to see--the fireworks--and then--somehow--I was out on the
platform." He shaded his eyes and looked off down the valley at the
half-shattered, wrecked tower. "The wind and the smoke!" he muttered.
"The wind and the smoke--and the dust in my eyes--and now it's all gone
to hell! But I guess everything's all right now, if you want to fly." He
touched his cap automatically. "We can start whenever you are ready,
sir. You see I thought you were gone, too! That would have been a mess!
I'm sure you can handle the balancer without Perkins. Poor old Perk! And
Hoskins--and the others. All gone, by God! All wiped out! Only me and
you left, sir!" He laughed hysterically.

"Bats in his belfry!" thought Bennie. "Something hit him!"

Slowly it came over him that the half-stunned creature thought that he,
Bennie Hooker, was Pax, the Master of the World!

He took the fellow by the arm. "Come on inside," he said. A plan had
already formulated itself in his brain. Even as he was the man might be
able to go through his customary duties in handling the Ring. It was not
impossible. He had heard of such things, and the thought of the long
marches over the frozen barrens and the perilous canoe trip down the
coast, contrasted with a swift rush for an hour or two through the
sunlit air, gave the professor the courage which might not have availed
him otherwise. At the top of a short ladder a trapdoor opened inward,
and Bennie found himself in a small compartment scarcely large enough to
turn around in, from which a second door opened into the body of the
Ring proper.

"It's all right--to-day," said the man hesitatingly. "I fixed--the
air-lock--yesterday, sir. The leak--was here--at the hinge--but it's
quite tight--now." He pointed at the door.

"Good," remarked Bennie. "I'll look around and see how things are."

This seemed to him to be eminently safe--and allowing for a program of
investigation absolutely essential at the moment. Once he could master
the secret of the Ring and be sure that the part of the fellow's brain
which controlled the performance of his customary duties had no