with exactly the same time
intervals the bolts arrived from space to lay waste the earth.

They struck where they would: the ocean again; the Sahara; in the
mountains of China; the Pacific was thrown into fearful convulsions;
the wheat fields of Canada trembled and vanished before a blast of
flaming gas....

Twenty hours and nineteen minutes! Where it would strike, the next
star-shell, no man might say; that it surely would come was a deadly
and nerve-shattering certainty. The earth waited and prayed under
actual bombardment.

* * * * *

Some super-gun, said science with conviction; a great bore in the
planet itself, perhaps. But it was fixed, and the planet itself aimed
with an accuracy that was deadly; aimed once as each revolution
brought its gun on the target. Herein, said science, lay a basis for
hope.

If, in that distant world, there was only one such bore, it must be
altering its aim as the planet approached; the gun must cease to bear
upon the earth. And the changing sweep of the missiles' flight
confirmed their belief.

Each meteor-shell that came rushing into Earth's embrace burned
brilliantly as it tore into the air. And each flaming arc was
increasingly bent, until--twenty hours and nineteen minutes had
passed--twenty minutes--thirty--another hour ... and the peoples of
Earth dropped humbly to their knees in thankful prayer, or raised
vengeful eyes and clenched fists toward the heavens while their
quivering lips uttered blasphemous curses. The menace, for the time,
had passed; the great gun of Venus no longer was aiming toward the
earth.

"No more ships," was the belief; "not this time." And the world turned
to an accounting of its losses, and to wonder--wonder--what the
planet's return would bring. A year and one half was theirs; one year
and a half in which to live in safety, in which to plan and build.

* * * * *

A column, double leaded, in the _London Times_ voiced the feeling of
the world. It was copied and broadcast everywhere.

"Another attack," it concluded, "is not a probability--it is a
certainty. They are destroying us for some reason known only to
themselves. Who can doubt that when the planet returns there will be a
further bombardment; an invasion by armed forces in giant ships; bombs
dropped from them miles high in the air. This is what we must look
forward to--death and destruction dealt out by a force we are unabl