And now, bombs gone, our cruisers were whirling upward now to escape from the great city we had struck such two awful blows, to head westward again over the Atlantic. About us a wild hail of heat-shells from the guns beneath were rushing upward and dozens of our cruisers were flaring and falling before we could gain a height again that put us beyond reach of the batteries beneath. Then we paused a moment, massing again to head westward, with only a few patrol-cruisers dashing futilely toward us from about and above us, now. Beneath us the giant air-city of Berlin lay with two white-hot craters of fusing metal glowing near its eastern and western edges amid the brilliance of its myriad lights, the great city hanging still in mid-air with the great motors in its base untouched by our two awful blows. Through its streets were rushing panic-mad crowds, and over it were rising the cruisers of its battle-fleet, striving to form and follow us as the guns thundered madly toward us and the searchlights wildly stabbed and circled. But as we hung there for that moment, massing together again, a wild triumphant cheer was coming from all in our cruiser and all the cruisers of our mass. For we had lost but a few dozens of our ships and had all but destroyed the mighty Berlin arsenals and a thousand of the European Federation cruisers, had struck a staggering blow at our enemy. And even as we gathered now we knew that the cruisers rising from beneath, striving to form their shattered and disorganized and stunned squadrons, would be too late to pursue us. Westward lights were gleaming in the upper air, growing larger, and we knew them to be other patrol-cruisers rushing in answer to the alarm from the city beneath, knew that even at that moment the great air-forts hanging in a chain westward would be rushing back to defend Berlin, knew that easily we could evade them and with their great chain broken could head westward at full speed over the Atlantic and win back to our own land. We had succeeded in our daring, insane plan, and our cheers were rolling out still as we began to move westward above the great, panic-roaring air-city. "We did it!" I cried to Macklin as our cruisers leapt forward now. "We struck a blow this time that they never dreamed we had the power to strike!" "And we'll win clear!" Macklin exclaimed, as he sent our cruiser shooting forward at the head of the others. And Hilliard, bursting up into the bridge-room from beneath, was crying, "We made it, Brant--we've destroyed their arsenals and a fourth of their fleet!" "And now back westward!" I exclaimed as our cruiser shot ahead. "Now back--_but look there above us_!"