hey were racing west, away
from their tiny opponent--in the only direction that was open to them.

But it was useless. The _Solarite_ could pick up speed in half the time
they could, and in an instant Arcot again trained his beam on the mighty
splotch of light that was a fleeing plane.

Out of the darkness came a ghostly beam, for an instant of time so short
that before the explosive shells of the other could be trained on it,
the _Solarite_ had moved. Under that touch the mighty plane began
crumbling, then it splintered beneath the driving blow of the great
wing, as it shot toward the main body of the plane at several miles a
second--driving into and through it! The giant plane twisted and turned
as it fell swiftly downward into the darkness--and, again there came
that world-rocking explosion, and the mighty column of light.

Again and yet again the _Solarite_ found and destroyed Kaxorian
super-planes, protected in the uneven conflict by their diminutive size
and the speed of their elusive maneuvering.

But to remind the men of the _Solarite_ that they were not alone, there
came a sudden report just behind them, and they turned to see that one
of the energy bombs had barely fallen short! In an instant the
comparative midget shot up at top speed, out of danger. It looped and
turned, hunting, feeling with its every detector for that other ship.
The great planes were spread out now. In every direction they could be
located--and all were leaving the scene of the battle. But one by one
the _Solarite_ shot after them, and always the speed of the little ship
was greater.

Two escaped. They turned off their useless invisibility apparatus and
vanished into the night.

The _Solarite_, supported by her vertical lift units, coasted toward a
stop. The drone of the fleeing super-planes diminished and was gone, and
for a time the thrum of the generator and the tap-dance of relays
adjusting circuits was the only sound aboard.

Wade sighed finally. "Well, gentlemen, now we've got it, what do we do
with it?"

"What do you mean?" Morey asked.

"Victory. The Jack-pot. Having the devices we just demonstrated, we are
now the sole owners, by right of conquest, of one highly disturbed
nation of several million people. With that gadget there, we can pick it
up and throw it away.

"Personally, I have a feeling that we've just won the largest white
elephant in history. We don't just walk off and leave it, you know. We
don't want it.