a stream of men in glistening relux suits were
filing. Any men comparable to humans would have been killed by the fall,
but not Thessians. They carried peculiar machines, and as they drove out
of the ship in dive that looked as though they had been shot from a
cannon, they turned and landed on the ground and proceeded to jump back,
leaping at a speed that was bewildering, seemingly impossible in any
living creature.

They busied themselves quickly. It took less than thirty seconds, and
they had a large relux disc laid under the entire group and machines.
Arcot turned a molecular ray down. The rock and soil shot up all about
them, even the ship shot up, to fall back into the great pit its ray had
formed. But the ionization told of the ray shield over the little group
of men. A heat ray reached down, while the men still frantically worked
at their stubby projectors. The relux disc now showed its purpose. In an
instant the soil about them was white hot, bubbling lava. It was liquid,
boiling furiously. But the deep relux disc simply floated on it. The
enemy ship began sinking, and in a moment had fallen almost completely
beneath the white hot rock.

A fountain of the melted lava sprung up, and under Arcot's skillful
direction, fell in a cloud of molten rock on the men working. The suits
protected, and the white hot stuff simply rolled off. But it was sinking
their boat. Arcot continued hopefully.

Meanwhile a signaling machine was frantically calling for help and
sending out information of their plight and position.

Then all was instantly wiped out in a single terrific jolt of the
magnetic beam. The machines jumped a little, despite their weight, and
the ray shield apparatus slumped suddenly in blazing white heat, the
interior mechanism fused. But the men were still active, and rapidly
spreading from the spot, each protected by a ray shield pack.

A brilliant stab of molecular ray shot at each from either of two of the
_Ancient Mariner'_s projectors as Morey aided Arcot. Their little packs
flared brilliantly for an instant under the thousands of horsepower of
energy lashing at the screen, then flashed away, and the opalescent
relux yielded a moment later, and the figure went twisting, hurtling
away. Meanwhile Wade was busy with the magnetic apparatus, destroying
shield after shield, which either Arcot or Morey picked off. The fall
from even so much as half a mile seemed not sufficient to seriously
bother these superm