emergency. It was, perhaps, as well that I
issued this order.

It was perhaps half an hour after we had passed the circular city
when, far ahead, I could see the pale, unhealthy forest thinning out.
A half dozen of our searchlight beams played upon the denuded area,
and as I brought the television disc to bear I saw that we were
approaching a vast swamp, in which little pools of black water
reflected the dazzling light of our searching beams.

Nor was this all. Out of the swamp a thousand strange, winged things
were rising: yellowish, bat-like things with forked tails and fierce
hooked beaks. And like some obscene miasma from that swamp, they rose
and came straight for the _Ertak_!

* * * * *

Instantly I pressed the attention signal that warned every man on the
ship.

"All disintegrator rays in action at once!" I barked into the
transmitter. "Broad beams, and full energy. Bird-like creatures, dead
ahead; do not cease action until ordered!"

I heard the disintegrator ray generators deepen their notes before I
finished speaking, and I smiled grimly, turning to Correy.

"Slow down as quickly and as much as possible, Mr. Correy," I ordered.
"We have work to do ahead."

He nodded, and gave the order to the operating room; I felt the
forward surge that told me my order was being obeyed, and turned my
attention again to the television disc.

The ray operators were doing their work well. The search lights showed
the air streaked with fine siftings of greasy dust, and these strange
winged creatures were disappearing by the scores as the disintegrator
rays beat and played upon them.

But they came on gamely, fiercely. Where there had been thousands,
there were but hundreds ... scores ... dozens....

There were only five left. Three of them disappeared at once, but the
two remaining came on unhesitatingly, their dirty yellow bat-like
wings flapping heavily, their naked heads outstretched, and hooked
beaks snapping.

One of them disappeared in a little sifting of greasy dust, and the
same ray dissolved one wing of the remaining creature. He turned over
suddenly, the one good wing flapping wildly, and tumbled towards the
waiting swamp that has spawned him. Then, as the ray eagerly followed
him, the last of that hellish brood disappeared.

"Circle slowly, Mr. Correy," I ordered. I wanted to make sure there
were none of these terrible creatures left. I felt that nothing so
terrible sho