on that August afternoon. Rubbing his fleshy red face with an
equally fleshy red hand, he dropped into a seat, and grumbled, "Guess
it's no use, boys! Simply don't seem able to turn the trick!"

Wiley had leaped to his feet. His horse-like teeth were unbared beneath
curling lips. "God! Mean to say she won't work?"

"No, blast it, she won't," concurred Malvine, who had come in just
behind Hogarth. "Haven't the two of us been slaving like teamsters,
along with McBride and a whole army of engineers? That cursed Deflector
has gone haywire! Why, I'll swear we diverted gravity enough to pull the
earth halfway over to Venus. And what are the results? Nil. Precisely
nil!"

Wiley stood regarding his fellow plotters in silence. An unpleasant
smirk formed itself upon his lips.

"Well, don't worry, boys. In the long run, a day or two more or less
won't matter."

"No, I'll be cursed if it will!" growled Hogarth. "Nothing in hell will
matter if we die along with everybody else!"

Wiley gasped. "What makes you so damned cheerful?"

"Well, how we going to save ourselves? I'm putting it to you straight,
old man. What if we are world dictators? We're doomed like every beetle
and rat on this crazy planet. The whole rotten globe is going to
freeze!"

"Afraid that's so," agreed Malvine, with a wry puckering of his long,
fox-like face. "We've tried hard enough, but we've about shot our bolt.
Frankly, there isn't any known principle by which we can get the
Deflector working again."

For the first time, a pallor had come across Wiley's features. He was
the scheming brains of the firm, but had not kept up on his science, and
always took his colleagues' word on technical matters.

For a while, he remained silent, his saturnine face grave with thought.
"By thunder," he finally broke out, "I'm not going to let myself die
just yet--not when I've got the world in my hands! There's one man
who'll be able to help out with that damned Deflector."

"Who's your genius?" sneered Malvine.

"Well, who but this fellow Holcomb?"

"Holcomb?"

"Of course. He's harmless now--but useless--in his underground
storeroom. I'm for taking him out--under proper supervision. He'll know
how to use the Deflector, if any man does!"

Hogarth's gloom relaxed a bit. "Good!" he approved. "Can't do any harm
to try. We've got to make damned sure, though, he doesn't get loose or
communicate with his friends. I'd a thousand times rather shoot him like
a yellow d