enant
saluted. I was marched off. Then I was not to be summarily executed. I
was not as much relieved as you might think. You see, I knew the
Ferret. We had raided one of his hangouts once; just missed him. But
we found an M.I.S. man there whom Rubinoff had been--questioning. We
thanked God when he died.

* * * * *

We tramped across the plain. My eyes kept roving about: there wasn't
much hope for me, but miracles have happened. Most of the scattered
structures were hastily thrown together sheds of sheet iron. Barracks,
they looked like. But, every so often I spied spheres of concrete, the
wide open doors revealing yard-thick walls. What could be their
purpose?

Something bothered me. Something about the ray projectors and the
other machinery I had seen. I glanced up at one of the balloons
floating high above. All these needed a power supply; tremendous power
to accomplish what the ray was doing. And there were no cables
running to them. How did the power get to them?

There was only one answer. Radio transmission. The required energy,
perhaps the very ray vibrations themselves, were being broadcast to
the points of projection. That meant a power-house and a control room
somewhere in the area. _The vulnerable points!_ Where were they?

I stumbled, and was jerked roughly to my feet. The lieutenant slapped
me. "Scared, Americansky? You well may be. We'll have rare sport when
they throw what the Ferret leaves of you into the ray." I shuddered.
To go out that way! I'll be honest--I was horribly afraid. The men to
whom I was shackled laughed.

A dull throbbing beat at my ears, a vibration just too low to be
sound. I looked about for its source. It came from my left--a concrete
building, low lying, about a hundred yards long by as many feet wide.
At the further end a squat smokestack broke the flat line of the roof.
Guards, many guards, were pacing their slow patrol about it. From the
center of the side nearest me, cables thick as a man's trunk issued
forth. I followed them with my eye. They ended in a marble slab on
which rested a concrete sphere, somewhat larger than the others. The
door of this one was closed. On the roof of the queer edifice was a
peculiar arrangement of wires, gleaming in the artificial daylight.
This building, too, was heavily guarded.

I had found what I sought--the power-house and the transmitting
station. Much good it did me--now.

* * *