d can, and rolled clumsily away. The other fort
was near now, and started an attack of its own. Arcot chose the
artificial matter this time. He was not watching the many attacking
ships.

The great ship careened suddenly, fell over heavily to one side.
"Foolish of me," said Arcot. "They tried crashing us."

A mass of crumpled, broken relux and lux surrounded by a haze of gas
lying against a slight scratch on the great sides, told the story. Eight
inches of cosmium does not give way.

Yet another ship tried it. But it stopped several feet away from the
real wall of the ship. It struck a wall even more unyielding--artificial
matter.

But now Arcot was using this major weapon--artificial matter. Ship after
ship, whether fleeing or attacking, was surrounded suddenly by a great
sphere of it, a sudden terrific blaze of energy as the sphere struck the
ray shield, the control forces now backed by the energy of all the
millions of stars of space shattered it in an instant. Then came the
inexorable crush of the artificial matter, and a ball of matter alone
remained.

But the pressing disc of the battle-front which had been lowering on
Chicago, greatest of Earth's metropolises, was lifted. This disc-front
was staggering back now as Arcot's mighty ship weakened its strength,
and destroyed its morale, under the steady drive of the now hopeful
Solarians.

The other gigantic fort moved up now, with twenty of the largest
battleships. The fort turned loose its destructive ray--and Arcot tried
his new "magnet." It was not a true magnet, but a transformed space
field, a field created by the energy of all the universe.

The fort was gigantic. Even Arcot's mighty ship was a small thing beside
it, but suddenly it seemed warped and twisted as space curved visibly in
a magnetic field of such terrific intensity as to be immeasurable.

Arcot's armory was tested and found not wanting.

Suddenly every Thessian ship in sight ceased to exist. They disappeared.
Instantly Arcot threw on all time power, and darted toward Venus. The
Thessians were already nearing the planet, and no possible rays could
overtake them. An instantaneous touch of the space control, and the
mighty ship was within hundreds of miles of the atmosphere.

Space twisted about them, reeled, and was firm. The Thessian fleet was
before them in a moment, visible now as they slowed to normal speed.
Startled, no doubt, to find before them the ship they had fled, they
charged