y vowed he would
rather go down to utter destruction than yield--but he was out-voted
in Council. It was pure slaughter otherwise, without a chance to fight
back.

At once the Mercutians set up their government. The Earth was turned
into a colony. The leader of the invaders, the son of the Mercutian
emperor, became Viceroy, with absolute powers. Sooner or later, it was
their intention to transport the entire Mercutian race to the Earth,
and make it their permanent home. Mercury was not an ideal place to
live on; in the restricted area around the poles where life was
possible, terrific storms alternated with furnace droughts, to which
the hottest part of the Sahara was an Arctic paradise. No wonder the
first Mercutian expedition had broached the subject of Earth as an
easy conquest when they returned.

The Mercutians treated the Earth people as slaves. Their rule was
brutal and arrogant in the extreme. The Earth people revolted, under
the leadership of Amos Peabody. Weaponless, except for small hidden
stores of rifles and revolvers--the Mercutians had cannily disarmed
their slaves--they fought desperately with axes, knives, clubs,
anything, against the overlords.

The result could have been expected. The rebellion was smothered in
blood and fire. The bravest of the Earthmen died in battle, or were
executed afterwards. The slaves, the weaklings, were left. Old Amos
Peabody was treated as Hilary had seen. He was exhibited in city after
city as a public warning.

* * * * *

Hilary's blood was boiling as the terrible narration went on and on.
But his face was calm, immovable.

"How do the diskoids operate?" he asked.

"Something like the sun rays on the one-man fliers," Grim told him,
"only vastly more powerful. They are not limited in range, for one
thing. It took only one, fifty miles up in the stratosphere, to
destroy all New York. I saw the one that first spied on the Earth. It
was about five hundred feet in diameter, made of the same vitreous
material, and shaped like a huge lens. No doubt, besides being a space
ship, it is just that. The sun's light flashes through it, is
rearranged into terrible burning rays, and sears all in its path."

"Hm'm!" Hilary meditated. "So everything the Mercutians have in the
way of weapons and armament depends directly on the sun's rays."

"Yes," Grim agreed. "After all, you must remember that with Mercury
exposed as it is to the fierce heat of t