ing,
smashing ship after ship. Like a snowball, the lump of glowing metal
grew with each crash, till a dozen ships had fallen into it. It was a
new broom, and it swept clean!

Then a magnetic beam caught the _Ancient Mariner_. With a shock, it
slowed down at a terrific rate. Then Arcot turned on more power, and
simply dragged the other ship along by its own magnetic beam! Wade tore
the ship loose with his molecular beam, but the mighty mass of metal
that had been his broom was gone, a glowing mass of metal on the ground.

"We haven't seen that new weapon yet," Morey called.

"Can't find us!" Arcot replied into the intercom. The sun was setting,
and the blazing red star was lighting the ship, making it seem like a
ball of fire when still and a flashing streak of red light when in
motion.

Ship after ship of the Satorians was going down before the three beams
of the Earth ship; the great fleet was dissolving like a lump of sugar
in boiling water.

Suddenly, just ahead of them, an enemy ship drove toward them with
obvious intent to ram; if his magnetic beam caught them, and drew them
towards him, there would be a head-on collision.

Wade caught it with a molecular beam, and it became a blazing wreck on
the ground.

"All rays off!" Arcot called. As soon as they were off, Arcot hit a
switch, and the _Ancient Mariner_ vanished.

Arcot drove the invisible ship high above the battle. Below, the
Satorians were searching wildly for the ship. They knew it must be
somewhere near, and feared that at any second it might materialize
before them with its deadly rays.

Arcot stayed above them for nearly a minute while the ships below
twisted and turned, wildly seeking him. Then they went into formation
again and started back for the city.

"That's what I wanted!" Arcot said grimly. "In formation, they're like
sitting ducks!" He dropped the ship like a plummet while the ray
operators prepared to sweep the formation with their beams.

Suddenly the _Ancient Mariner_ was visible again. Simultaneously, three
rays leaped down and bathed the formation in their pale radiance. The
front ranks vanished, and the line broke, attacking the ship that hung
above them now. Four magnetic beams hit the _Ancient Mariner_ at once!
Arcot couldn't pull away from all four, and his gunners couldn't tell
which ships were holding them.

All at once, the men felt a violent electrical shock! The air about them
was filled with the blue haze of the e