crackling of shots started popping, like corn-kernels exploding. Dark
figures were racing for the Palisade gate--the gate where, if any
slightest thing went wrong with track or giant plane, the whole vast
fabric might crash down, a tangled mass of wreckage.

Then it was, that for the first time in all his knowledge of the
Master, Bohannan heard the strange man laugh.

Joyously he laughed, and with keen pleasure. His eyes were blazing, as
he thrust the rising-plane lever sharply up.

More shouts volleyed. From somewhere back there in the body of the
ship, a cry of pain resounded.

Bohannan flung the window-pane to one side, and blazed away like mad
at the attackers.

A shatter of broken glass burst into the pilot-house. Alden, catching
his breath, quivered. He uttered no outcry, but his right hand went
across and clutched his wounded left arm.

"Got you?" cried the major, still pumping lead. He paused, jerked
Alden's automatic from its holster and thrust it into the captain's
hand, now red.

Alden, a bit pale but quite impassive, opened fire through the jagged
hole in the double pane. Accurately the captain fired at dark figures.
One fell. Another staggered; but as the machine swept on, they lost
sight of it.