uld concentrate on the one unprotected ship. Immediately
another terrestrial ship opened its screen and bombarded the same ship.
Two others followed--and then it was forced to use its screen.

But suddenly a terrestrial ship crashed. Its straining screen had been
overworked--and it failed.

Arcot's magnetic beam went into action. The Thessian ray did not go
out--it flickered, dimmed, but was apparently as deadly as ever.

"Shielded--write off the magnet, Morey. That is one asset we lose."

Arcot, protected in space, was thinking swiftly. Moleculars--useless.
They had to keep their own screens up. Artificial matter--bound in by
their own molecular screen! And the magnet had failed them against the
protected mechanism of the dome. The ships were not as yet protected,
but the dome was.

"Guess the only place we'd be safe is under the ground--way under!"
commented Wade dryly.

"Under the ground--Wade, you're a genius!" Arcot gave a shout of joy,
and told Wade to take over the ship.

"Take the ship back into normal space, head for the hill over behind the
Dome, and drop behind it. It's solid rock, and even their rays will take
a moment or so to move it. As soon as you get there, drop to the ground,
and turn off the screen. No--here, I'll do it. You just take it there,
land on the ground, and shut off the screen. I promise the rest!" Arcot
dived for the artificial matter room.

The ship was suddenly in normal space; its screen up. The dog-fight had
been ended. The terrestrial ships had been completely defeated. The
_Ancient Mariner'_s appearance was a signal for all the moleculars in
sight. Ten huge ships, half a dozen small forts and now the unshielded
Dome, joined in. Their screen tubes heated up violently in the brief
moment it took to dive behind the hill, a tube fused, and blew out.
Automatic devices shunted it, another tube took the load--and heated.
But their screen was full of holes before they were safe for the moment
behind the hill.

Instantly Wade dropped the defective screen. Almost as quickly as the
screen vanished, a cylinder of artificial matter surrounded the entire
ship. The cylinder was tipped by a perfect cone of the same base
diameter. The entire system settled into the solid rock. The rock above
cracked and filled in behind them. The ship was suddenly pushed by the
base of the cylinder behind them, and drove on through the rock, the
cone parting the hard granite ahead. They went perhaps half a