alf of Manhattan Island, with one section
straddling the East River, and spreading out sufficiently over what once
had been Brooklyn, to provide berths for the great liners and other air
craft.

Straight beneath my feet was a tiny dark patch. It seemed the only spot
in the entire city that was not aflame with radiance. This was the
central tower, in the top floors of which were housed the vast library
of record files and the main projectoscope plant.

"You can shoot the wire now," I ultrophoned Gibbons, and let go the
little weighted knob. It dropped like a plummet, and we followed with
considerable speed, but braking our descent with gloved hands
sufficiently to see whether the knob, on which a faint light glowed as a
signal for ourselves, might be observed by any Han guard or night
prowler. Apparently it was not, and we again shot down with accelerated
speed.

We landed on the roof of the tower without any mishap, and fortunately
for our plan, in darkness. Since there was nothing above it on which it
would have been worth while to shed illumination, or from which there
was any need to observe it, the Hans had neglected to light the tower
roof, or indeed to occupy it at all. This was the reason we had selected
it as our landing place.

As soon as Gibbons had our word, he extinguished the knob light, and the
knob, as well as the wire, became totally invisible. At our ultrophoned
word, he would light it again.

"No gun play now," I warned. "Swords only, and then only if absolutely
necessary."

Closely bunched, and treading as lightly as only inertron-belted people
could, we made our way cautiously through a door and down an inclined
plane to the floor below, where Gaunt and Blash assured us the military
offices were located.

Twice Barker cautioned us to stop as we were about to pass in front of
mirror-like "windows" in the passage wall, and flattening ourselves to
the floor, we crawled past them.

"Projectoscopes," he said. "Probably on automatic record only, at this
time of night. Still, we don't want to leave any records for them to
study after we're gone."

"Were you ever here before?" I asked.

"No," he replied, "but I haven't been studying their electrophone
communications for seven years without being able to recognize these
machines when I run across them."

CHAPTER IX

The Fight in the Tower

So far we had not laid eyes on a Han. The tower seemed deserted. Blash
and Gaunt, however, ass