I leaped up, against the efforts of Toh and Guy to pull me down. A figure stood at the forest edgethe bundled shape of a man in animal skins. I shot. My rifle stabbed its spurt of yellow flame. The report echoed in the still night air over the frozen lake.

But my shot never reached its intended mark.

From my adversary the blue-green beam came again. By chance it must have met my bullet. A puff of fire showed in mid-air as the steel-tipped missile melted into burning gas and ashes.

The figure disappeared. We were all three running forward, but we got not more than thirty feet.

"Jack-look!" We stood amazed, transfixed, cold with horror. From the forest a shape rose up. A huge silver ball, thirty feet or so in diameter. It mounted over the trees with a hiss, like a rocket, with a faint stream of light-fire beneath it.

We stood stricken, watching as it sailed up and dwindled.

The moon came out. The moonlight caught the sphere, bathed it with glistening silver. The tiny dark windows and doorway were visible.

It shrank to a dot amid the stars. A gloaming speck.

Twinkling... . Gone! The rest of the night was a turmoil of confusion to me. With the approaching nearness of Mercury, the silver ball had comeand was already gone. And Tama and Rowena were on it; we could not doubt that.

By telephone we summoned help. Local flyers came. We called Grenfell. Headquarters of the Interstate Patrol were seeking Jimmy.

In the midst of it allour orders from Grenfell giving us so much to do, so quickly1 moved as though in a dream.

Rowena gone! My bride of two months stolen by these marauders from another planetl Goneand Tama gone! Already speeding out there into the starry depths of space! Guy rushed at me as I stood in the cabin living room groping with my confusion of thoughts.