erene
moonlight above the wreckage and the rising layers of smoke, stood
unscathed in the very heart of Manhattan. The lone survivor,
standing there with the moonlight shining upon its top, and the
smoke gathering black around its spreading base.

The two observers in the airplane, stricken with horror at what they
had seen, flew mechanically back and forth. Once they passed within
a few hundred feet of the standing giant. They saw its two hundred
foot mooring mast for dirigibles rising above the eighty-five
stories of the main structure. They saw the little observatory room
up there in the mooring mast top, with its circular observation
platform, a balcony around it. But they did not notice the figures
on that balcony.

Then, from the top of the Empire State Building--from the circular
observation platform--a single, horribly intense green light-beam
slanted out into the night! A new attack! As though all which had
gone before were not enough destruction, now came a new assault. The
spectral enemies were tangible now!

* * * * *

The single green light-beam was very narrow. But the moonlight could
not fade it; over miles of distance it held visible. It struck first
a passing airplane. The two observers in the monoplane were at this
time down near the Battery. They saw the giant beam hit the
airplane. A moment it clung, and parts of the plane faded. The plane
wavered, and then, like a plummet, fell.

The beam swung. It struck a warship lying in the upper bay.
Explosions sounded. Puffs of light flared. The ship, with all its
passengers vanished and gone, lay gutted and empty.

The source of the light moved rapidly around the circular balcony.
The light darted to every distant point of the compass. The
surprised distant ships and forts, realizing that here for the first
time was a tangible assailant, screamed shots into the night. But
the green beam struck the ships and forts and instantly silenced
them.

Now the realization of this tangible enemy spread very far. Within a
few minutes, planes and radio communication had carried the news.
From distant points which the light could not or did not reach,
long-range guns were firing at the Empire State. A moment or two
only. The base of the building was struck.

Then, frantically, observing planes sent out the warning to stop
firing. The green beam had for a minute or two vanished. But now it
flashed on again. What was this? The spect