It was nearly dark before the Lanorians had finished their work, and the
gas tanks had been recharged. All that time Arcot had spent with Tonlos
determining the position of the Kaxorian construction camp. Spy reports
and old maps had helped, but it was impossible to do very accurate work
by these means.

It was finally decided that the Kaxorian construction camp was about
10,500 miles to the southwest. The _Solarite_ was to start an hour after
dark. Travelling westward at their speed, they hoped to reach the camp
just after nightfall.

VIII

The _Solarite_ sped swiftly toward the southwest. The sky slowly grew
lighter as the miles flashed beneath them. They were catching up with
the sun. As they saw the rolling ocean beneath them give way to low
plains, they realized they were over Kaxorian land. The _Solarite_ was
flying very high, and as they showed no lights, and were not using the
invisibility apparatus, they were practically undetectable. Suddenly
they saw the lights of a mighty city looming far off to the east.

"It's Kanor. Pass well to the west of it. That's their capital. We're on
course." Arcot spoke from his position at the projector, telling Wade
the directions to follow on his course to the berth of the giant planes.

The city dropped far behind them in moments, followed by another, and
another. At length, veering southward into the dusk, they entered a
region of low hills, age-old folds in the crust of the planet, rounded
by untold millennia of torrential rains.

"Easy, Wade. We are near now." Mile after mile they flashed ahead at
about a thousand miles an hour--then suddenly they saw far off to the
east a vast glow that reached into the sky, painting itself on the
eternal clouds miles above.

"There it is, Wade. Go high, and take it easy!"

Swiftly the _Solarite_ climbed, hovering at last on the very rim of the
cloud blanket, an invisible mote in a sea of gray mist. Below them they
saw a tremendous field carved, it seemed, out of the ancient hills. From
this height all sense of proportion was lost. It seemed but an ordinary
field, with eighteen ordinary airplanes resting on it. One of these now
was moving, and in a moment it rose into the air! But there seemed to be
no men on all the great field. They were invisibly small from this
height.

Abruptly Arcot gave a great shout. "That's their surprise! They're ready
far ahead of the time we expected! If all that armada gets in the air,
w