They were towed through the air in long strings, holding on to ropes made fast to their respective vessels, their parachute dress serving for the most part to maintain their position, with the aid of the ropes, and small motor-machines here and there. As the great array advanced, Fumenta retired—at first as though with reluctance, then more hurriedly, till at last the retreat began to look like the beginning of a panic-stricken flight. Then Agrando sent his swiftest vessels ahead, towing with them their strings of boarders. In the excitement of pursuit some went faster than the rest, whilst others swerved off to right or to left to outflank the fugitives and head them back, thus creating gaps and spaces in their own ranks. Meantime, where were Ivanta and his two yachts? That was the question that was being asked by Fumenta and his trusted lieutenants, and they asked it more anxiously as the minutes went by. The outlaw chief had—sorely, it must be confessed, against his own feelings—consented to carry out a plan which involved the appearance of ignominious flight. The old fighter did not like the role he was thus playing; but he had promised, and he was carrying out his part. The question was, would Ivanta arrive soon enough to carry out his part? If he was to do so it was time he put in an appearance. Fumenta looked upwards and scanned the sky anxiously. Nothing was to be seen but some rather heavy-looking clouds, which were floating with the wind, and would shortly be overhead. Suddenly, in the midst of one of these clouds, two dark shadows showed. A moment later they had taken form and burst out into the open, and then the two yachts came swooping wildly down, with closed wings, like huge birds stooping to strike their prey. *CHAPTER XXXIX.* *THE END OF THE STRUGGLE.* When Ivanta, with the two yachts, had gone off, leaving Fumenta with his fleet to face Agrando’s powerful force, he had not, in reality, gone very far. At first he had travelled swiftly to windward, till he met with a bank of cloud drifting with the breeze. Then he had been content to penetrate into it just far enough to conceal his two vessels and remain there, floating slowly back with the cloud in the direction from which he had come. Well versed in the movements of the varying currents of air and the clouds they bore with them, he calculated that by remaining thus inactive he would be carried back to the scene of the coming conflict without any one suspecting his whereabouts, and that he would arrive just about the time when he would be able to act with the best effect. Gerald and Jack, on board Alondra’s yacht, watched from afar the beginning of the battle. The yachts took up a station near the edge of the cloud, just far enough from its fringe for concealment, yet not so deep in the mist as to prevent them from watching, through powerful glasses, all that was taking place.