lefully at us from
his intelligent dark eyes, I glanced over the side of the ship to see
whether trouble was to be expected from his fellows.

And for the moment they surged about so much, and made so much noise,
that I thought trouble might come. The shouting, however, was caused by
their dismay at all that had happened to them, and I saw that instead of
making ready to attack they were preparing a retreat. We had whipped
them temporarily.

We had thrown them into such disorder, indeed, that in another moment a
whole force of them gave proof of their ability to fly, by taking off
from the beach. Up and out they swept, out into the intense blackness
which overhung the sea behind us. In another moment the whole crew had
vanished, and I was glad enough of it.

"Come on below," I said to my two companions. "There's no telling how
long Leider will keep his hands off us, and we've got to find out from
our prisoner whatever we can."

With that I turned to the companionway, lugging the winged man, and the
others followed.

CHAPTER III

_In the Grip of Ludwig Leider_

Once we were below, LeConte joined us from the radio room. After taking
a swift look at our prisoner, and listening to our account of what had
happened above, he reported that the radio had been put out of
commission by the crash but could be repaired. All of us then held a
hasty conference and decided that since no one was badly in need of
rest, LeConte would return to his sending set, Koto would keep a deck
watch, and Captain Crane and I would see what we could learn from the
prisoner.

From the start it had been certain that the Orconite's strength was not
to be compared to our earthly powers. Therefore I made no attempt to
bind him, but simply shoved him into a seat in the main cabin of the
flier--the room in which Forbes' body still lay--and began to try to
make him talk.

I knew that Leider must have some way of communicating with his allies,
and I was determined that if he could, I could. But it was uphill work.
The creature closed his mouth, assumed a sullen look, and sat tight. He
knew what I was after--that I could tell by the expression of his
face--but he met with stolid silence all of my attempts to address him
in such languages as I knew of Earth and our allied planets. I got
nowhere, until, in a manner as sudden as it was unexpected, something
happened which ended the deadlock.

* * * *