om the watching men.

Some five thousand feet up in the night was a gleaming ship. There
were rows of portholes that shone twinkling against the black
sky--portholes in multiple rows on the side. The craft was
inconceivably huge. Formless and dim of outline in the darkness, its
vast bulk was unmistakable.

And as they watched with staring, incredulous eyes, it seemed to take
alarm as if it sensed the parting of its concealing cloud blanket. It
shot with dizzy speed and the roar of a mighty meteor straight up into
the night. The gleam of its twinkling lights merged to a distant star
that dwindled, shrank and vanished in the heights.

The men were wordless and open-mouthed. They stared at each other in
disbelief of what their eyes had registered.

"A liner!" gasped Captain Blake. "A--a--liner! Mac, there is no such
thing."

* * * * *

McGuire pointed where the real cause of their visitor's departure
appeared. A plane with engine wide open came tearing down through the
clouds. It swung in a great spiral down over the field and dropped a
white flare as it straightened away; then returned for the landing. It
taxied at reckless speed toward the hangars and stopped a short
distance from the men. The pilot threw himself out of the cockpit and
raced drunkenly toward them.

"Did you see it?" he shouted, his voice a cracked scream. "Did you see
it?"

"We saw it," said Captain Blake; "yes, we saw it. Big as--" He sought
vainly for a proper comparison, then repeated his former words: "Big
as an ocean liner!"

The pilot nodded; he was breathing heavily.

"Any markings?" asked his superior. "Anything to identify it?"

"Yes, there were markings, but I don't know what they mean. There was
a circle painted on her bow and marks like clouds around it, but I
didn't have time to see much. I came out of a cloud, and there the
thing was. I was flying at five thousand, and they hung there dead
ahead. I couldn't believe it; it was monstrous; tremendous. Then they
sighted me, I guess, and they up-ended that ship in mid-air and shot
straight up till they were out of sight."

It was the captain's turn to nod mutely.

"There's your miracle," said Lieutenant McGuire softly.

"Miracle is right," agreed Captain Blake; "nothing less! But it is no
miracle of ours, and I am betting it doesn't mean any good to us. Some
other country has got the jump on us."

To the pilot he ordered: "Say nothing of this--n