espite the fact that LeConte was embroiled with a dozen winged men, his
face became crinkled with a broad grin!

"Watch!" he yelled suddenly, and I _did_ watch.

We were within a few feet of the driving gear of one of the generators.
Quick as a bolt of lightning, LeConte caught a deadly firm hold on one
of the ugly, squawking orange-skinned creatures, raised him into the
air, and there held him poised while he swung around to face the
generator.

Genius!

There was a shriek, then a thousand shrieks. Impelled by the Frenchman's
tremendous heave, the winged man shot forward and struck full, with a
splashing sound, against the terrifically revolving armature. A
thunderbolt seemed to explode in our faces. All in that room, we as well
as the Orconites, reeled dazedly back. A stench of seared flesh and
short circuited wires smote our nostrils. Darkness--smothering, thick,
absolute darkness--settled over us.

* * * * *

"Come on!" LeConte shouted amidst the blessed inkiness of it, and I felt
him tug at my hand. Captain Crane's hand slipped into my other, Koto
caught hold of her, and we started forward.

Genius indeed, this stroke of LeConte's.

Clinging stoutly to each other, we pushed through the meager,
floundering opposition which was all that was offered in the intense
darkness, and began to forge swiftly ahead. Ten yards ... a hundred. A
slight decrease of the sounds of crying and panting and of confused
flopping wings told us we had passed through the arch which separated
the wrecked power room from the hangar.

"Captain," I whispered as we battered against some confused and helpless
Orconites and flung them aside, "could you make anything of the control
system on the cruiser before Leider got us?"

Virginia Crane said vigorously that she had.

"The light switches are all on a board to the right of the entrance
door. The other controls are as readily accessible."

"Leaves us in something of a position!" I whispered.

The hand which she had placed in my own tightened its grip. I heard
LeConte grunt with satisfaction as he pressed forward. I began to figure
on ways and means of getting to our wrecked ship alone after the others
were aboard the cruiser.

We crossed another fifty or sixty yards of the darkness, and found fewer
of the badly shaken Orconites in our path. Now, in that thick obscurity,
I sensed that we were nearing the magnificent, tapering hull with it