r conveyance to the hideous Golgotha of the pampas.

The chance that any individual would be among the fated ones was
reasonably small. It was the fashion to make a jest of the whole
business. Ruth smiled as she showed her ticket.

Kay stared at it. "Ruth, if--if anything happened to you I'd go
insane. I'd--"

"Why this sudden ardor, Kay?"

* * * * *

Kay took Ruth's small hand in his. "Ruth, you mustn't play with me any
more. You know I love you. And the sight of that thing makes me almost
insane. You do care, don't you?" And, as Ruth remained silent, "Ruth,
it isn't Cliff Hymes, is it? I know you two are old friends. I'd
rather it were Cliff than anybody else, if it had to be some one,
but--tell me, Ruth!"

"It isn't Cliff," said Ruth slowly.

"Is it--some one else?"

"It's you, dear," answered Ruth. "It's always been you. It might have
been Cliff if you hadn't come along. But he knows now it can never be
he."

"Does he know it's me?" asked Kay, greatly relieved.

Ruth inclined her head. "He took it very finely," she said. "He said
just what you've said about him. Oh, Kay, if only your experiment had
succeeded, and the world could be free of this nightmare! What
happened? Why couldn't you and Cliff make it destroy life?"

"I don't know, dear," answered Kay. "Iron and steel melt into powder
at the least impact of the rays. They are so powerful that there was
even a leakage through the rubber and anelektron container. Even the
craolite socket was partly fused, and that is supposed to be an
impossibility. And there was a hole in the ground seven feet deep
where the very mineral water in the earth had been dissolved. But
against organic substances the W-ray is powerless.

"Next year, dear--next year we'll have solved our problem, and then
we'll free the world of this menace, this nightmare. Ruth--don't let's
talk about that now. I love you!"

They kissed. The Earth Giants faded out of their consciousness even
while Ruth held that ominous ticket in her hand.

* * * * *

Kay said nothing to Cliff about it, but Cliff knew. Perhaps he had put
his fate to the test with Ruth and learned the truth from her. Ruth
made no reference to the matter when she saw Kay. But between the two
men, friends for years, a coolness was inexorably developing.

They had gone to work on the new machine. They were hopeful. When they
were working, they forgot their riv