l Boynton sat
with receiver to his ear. A general's uniform was gleaming in the
light to make more sober by contrast the civilian clothing of that
quiet, clear-eyed man who held the portfolio of the Secretary of War.

They stared silently at Colonel Boynton, and they saw the blood recede
from his face, while his cool voice went on unmoved with its replies.

"... I understand," he said; "a washout, complete except for Captain
Blake; his oxygen saved him.... It attacked with gas, you say?... And
why did not our own planes escape?... Its speed!--yes, we'll have to
imagine it, but it is unbelievable. One moment--" He turned to those
who waited for his report.

"The squadron," he said with forced quiet, though his lips twitched in
a bloodless line, "--the 91st--is destroyed. The enemy put them down
with one blow; enveloped them with gas." He recounted the essence of
McGuire's report, then turned once more to the phone.

"Hello, Lieutenant--the enemy ship--where is it now?"

He listened--listened--to a silent receiver: silent save for the sound
of a shot--a crashing fall--a loud, panting breath. He heard the
breathing close to the distant instrument; it ended in a choking gasp;
the instrument was silent in his ear....

He signalled violently for the operator: ordered the ringing of any
and all phones about the observatory, and listened in vain for a sound
or syllable in reply.

"A plane," he told an orderly, "at once! Phone the commercial flying
field near the base of Mount Lawson. Have them hold a car ready for
me: I shall land there!"

CHAPTER V

To Captain Blake alone, of all those persons on the summit of Mount
Lawson, it was given to see and to know and be able to relate what
transpired there and in the air above. For Blake, although he appeared
like one dead, was never unconscious throughout his experience.

Driving head on toward the ship, he had emptied his drum of cartridges
before he threw his plane over and down in a dive that escaped the
onrush of the great craft by a scant margin, and that carried him down
in company with the men and machines of the squadron that dived from
above.

He turned as they turned and climbed as they climbed for the advantage
that altitude might give. And he climbed faster: his ship outdistanced
them in that tearing, scrambling rush for the heights. The squadron
was spiraling upward in close formation with his plane above them when
the enemy struck.

He saw that great s