The thing hissed slightly; a dull violet beam sprang like light from the projector. It struck the screen some twenty feet away, in a large circle of fluorescence; in the dimness of the room it seemed like phosphorescent water, landing in a spray and dissipating as it struck, like a dissolving mist. Freddie cried, "Peter, hold something in it!" I took a sheet of paper, held it carefully into the beam. It shriveled, blackened and burst into flame. Then a lead pencil--it melted off midway of its length as I held it up. [Illustration: "I held a piece of paper in the beam. It shriveled immediately, blackened and burst into flame."] Freddie snapped off the apparatus. "That's all, gentlemen. With a large model, I would use a high voltage current for my original impulse, instead of the tiny impulse of the human body." "How far will that beam carry?" the President demanded. "This one?" Freddie asked. "Or a maximum, full-sized projector?" "This one. Why talk about what you haven't got?" "About thirty-five feet, sir. Further, perhaps, if I concentrate it--keep it from spreading. Say fifty feet. But at that distance its temperature would not be very great." "How great?" "Two hundred degrees Fahrenheit." "How much is it at the muzzle?" "About twelve hundred." An effective range of thirty-five or fifty feet! They were all disappointed. "We can't," said the War Secretary, "figure this thing in the light of a large model we some time might be able to build. What good is that?" The man beside me said abruptly: "This thing is useless to help us now, gentlemen. But, in the future--do you know, I wouldn't say but what this young fellow has hit upon something not unlike what our enemies seem to be using--" The door from the adjoining room opened. A man said: "Davis has started his flight. He's almost within sight of them now--shall I bring in the screen?" "Bring it in," said the President. "Get these lights down--put that away, Mr. Smith--we'll discuss that some other time--it's been very interesting." Freddie hastily gathered up his apparatus. The lights in the conference room were turned out; it was illumined only by the blue reflection through the doorway. Men brought in a tel-vision screen some two feet square; placed it upright on the table and we all gathered before it. The instrument room door was closed. We were in the darkness save for the vague silver radiance that came from the screen. * * * * * From the whispers around me I soon knew what was transpiring. The invaders had landed on the east bank of the frozen Hudson, near the suburb of Tarrytown. Xenephrene was at its closest point to the earth now, which is what doubtless prompted the invasion. Xenephrene was passing us; beginning to-day, the distance between the worlds would grow greater.