-He saw something
lance out from one of them. The scouting plane leaped upward in a
screaming climb. Something reached toward it again, touched it. It began
to lose altitude. It was still coming toward the Idaho but it was on a
long slant.

"It's being attacked!" Higgins shouted, pain in his voice.

Over the Idaho the call to battle stations rolled. Again the mighty
vessel surged to the tempo of men going into action.

The scouting plane was dropping lower and lower. It hit the water. One
of the pursuing ships dived down at it.

The anti-aircraft batteries let go. For the second time the Idaho was
defending herself. Thunder rolled across the waters.

The attacking plane was within point-blank range. Mushrooms of black
smoke puffed into existence around it, knocked it around in the air,
caught it with a direct hit.

A gigantic explosion sounded.

A ball of smoke burst where the plane had been. Fragments floated
outward, slid downward to the sea. There was not enough of the plane
left for identification.

The second plane lifted upward. For the first time Craig got a good look
at it. His first impression, illogical as that was, was that it was a
Jap ship. When it lifted up he got a good look at it. It wasn't a Jap
plane. No marks of the rising sun were visible on its body.

Craig saw then that it wasn't a plane at all. It had stubby, sloping
wings, but the wings were apparently more for the purpose of stabilizing
flight than for the lift they might impart. It looked like a flying
wedge.

He could not tell how it was propelled. If it had a motor, he could not
see it.

It was fast, faster than greased lightning.

Apparently its pilot had not noticed the battleship until the barrage of
anti-aircraft fire had destroyed the first plane. Not until then did he
even know the Idaho existed. Like a bird that had been suddenly startled
by the appearance of a hawk, the plane leaped into the air. Shells were
still bursting around it. It went up so fast it left the barrage
completely behind. Its climb was almost vertical. It rose to about
twenty thousand feet, leveled off. Twice it circled the battleship,
ignoring the shell bursts, that tried to keep up with it.

Then it turned in the direction from which it had come. It was out of
sight in seconds.

There was silence on the bridge of the Idaho.

"Holy cats!" Craig heard an officer mutter. "Somebody is crazy as hell.
_We_ don't have planes that will fly like that an