From the roof of the War Department we watched his tiny globe ascending into the star-filled night. Would he ever reach Xenephrene? We never knew; to this day we do not know. But we think so. Father told us then what astronomers, just before the Red Madness, had discovered. Xenephrene had broken the orbit of her eclipse about the sun! She seemed heading outward again. Leaving our Solar System, perhaps? Father thought so. He had suspected, back in those days of Garla, that it might happen. He had mentioned it in his letter to us, saying that Freddie would understand. It had now probably occurred. Xenephrene, the wanderer, might soon be gone from our ken forever. Best for them--without our sunlight, their purple moon would hold the Infra-red in check, even if Kean, with the purple globe, never reached them. I have wondered since if perhaps those scientists of Garla were not capable of directing, to some extent, their planet's movements? Perhaps their departure was their own method of saving themselves from the Red Terror. There was another thing which father hinted at now. He believed, with Xenephrene gone, our earth's axis might swing back to its former inclination. He thought--but this no one yet knew--that it was already swinging. The old order of the day and night, the familiar progression of seasons, would return to us. Our great cities--New York, London, Paris, Buenos Aires--now almost abandoned but not yet fallen into ruin, would come back into their own. "Oh, Peter," he exclaimed, "if you lads can now overcome this enemy! Stamp out these vermin! I will live yet to see my old familiar world restored!" On the morning of August 18, our air force was ready to start. From Brazil news came that Graff's encampment outwardly showed no change. But it was thought, and afterward we decided it was a fact, that he was planning a new flight of devastation with his flying platforms. It never took place; our attack was first. Our expedition consisted of a hundred and fifty Arctic A warplanes, each with two or three men, pilot and gunners. We were all garbed in the black garments, with glasses and ear-grids. One plane carried nothing but our lone crimson ray; four other planes carried the four purple-ray projectors and Essen-Bloc long-range guns. The rest carried guns only--the Essen-Blocs and the short-range, old-fashioned machine gun. Dan, Freddie and I were to fly together. Our plane carried a purple projector, an Essen-Bloc, and a machine gun. We were chosen to lead the expedition because of our familiarity with the Garland weapons, and my knowledge of Graff's lines. The most skillful, most daring young aviators of the world--the pick of a dozen nations--comprised this force we commanded. The plane carrying the crimson projector was flown by Davis and Robinson, sons of the men who had given their lives attacking the Xenephrenes near New York during Graff's first invasion.