y won't dare stop in the
jungles. They'll go straight on through. They should reach Rahn at
dawn or a little before. And at dawn our air fleet will be over the
city and they'll give back the women, unharmed, or we'll turn their
own trick on them, by God! It'd be better for Evelyn to die of gas
than as--as the Ragged Men would kill her!"

His hands were clenched and he breathed noisily for an instant. Then
he swallowed, and went on in the same unnatural calm:

"Smithers, you're going to stay behind, with part of the air fleet.
You'll get aloft before dawn and shoot down any strange aircraft. They
might try to stalemate us by repeating their threat, with our guns
over Rahn. I'll give orders."

He turned again to the Councilor, who nodded, glanced at Smithers, and
repeated the command.

"You, sir," he spoke to Denham, "you'll come with me. It's your right,
I suppose. And we'll go down and get ready."

He led the way steadily toward a door. But he reached up to his
collar, once, as if he were choking, and ripped away collar and coat
and all, unconscious of the resistance of the cloth.

* * * * *

That night the Golden City made savage preparation for war. Ships were
loaded and ranged in order. Crews armed themselves, and helped in the
loading and arming of other ships. Oddly enough, it was to Tommy that
men came to ask if the directing apparatus for the Death Mist should
be carried. The Death Mist could, of course, be used as a gas alone,
drifting with the wind, or it could be directed from a distance. This
had been done on Earth, with the directional impulses sent blindly
down the Tube merely to keep the Mist moving always. The controlling
apparatus could be carried in a monster freight plane. Tommy ordered
it done. Also he had the captured planes from Rahn refitted for flight
by replacing their smashed propelling grids. Fresh crews of men for
these ships organized themselves.

When the fleet took off there was only darkness in all the world. The
unfamiliar stars above shone bright and very near as Tommy's ship,
leading, winged noiselessly up and down and straight away from the
play of prismatic lights above the city. Behind him, silhouetted
against that many-colored glow, were the angular shapes of many other
noiseless shadows. The ornithopters with their racket would start
later, so the planes would be soaring above Rahn before their presence
was even suspected. The rest of the fl