tims becoming known
until all possibility of rescue was removed.

* * * * *

No chance of rescuing her! From a hundred airports the great
Government airships had long since sailed into the skies, carrying
those selected by the wheel at Washington for sacrifice to the Earth
Giants. Only one chance remained. If Cliff had discovered the secret
that had so long eluded them, surely he would reveal it to him now!

Their quarrel was forgotten. Kay only knew that the woman he loved was
even then speeding southward to be thrown to the maw of the vile
monsters that held the world in terror. Surely Cliff would bend every
effort to save her!

Only a few hours had passed since Kay had stormed out of the
laboratory in the Adirondacks in a rage when he was back on their
little private landing field. He leaped from the plane and ran up the
trail beside the lake between the trees. The cabin was dark; and, when
Kay reached the laboratory he found it dark too.

"Cliff! Cliff!" he shouted.

No answer came, and with a sinking heart he snapped the button at the
door. It failed to throw the expected flood of light through the
interior. With shaking hand Kay pulled the little electron torch from
his pocket, and its bright beam showed that the door was padlocked. He
moved round to the window. The glass was unbreakable, but the ray from
the torch showed that the interior of the laboratory had been
dismantled, and the great top was gone.

In those few hours Cliff, for reasons best known to himself, had
removed the top, Kay's one hope of saving Ruth. And he was gone.

* * * * *

In that moment Kay went insane. He raved and cursed, calling down
vengeance upon Cliff's head. Cliff's very motive was incredible. That
he had deliberately removed the top in order that Ruth should die was
not, of course, conceivable. But in that first outburst of fury Kay
did not consider that.

Presently Kay's madness burned itself out. There was still one thing
that he could do. His plane, slow though it was, would carry him to
the pampas. He could get fresh fuel at numerous bootleg petrol
stations, even though the regulations against intersectional flight
were rigid. With luck he could reach the pampas, perhaps before the
sluggish monsters had fallen upon their prey. It was said that the
victims sometimes waited for days!

Something was rubbing against his leg, pricking it through his
anklets.