Sam Conway cursed himself for his eagerness and lust for power. He'd been like an old gold miner, he thought savagely, ready almost to kill his own brother to preserve his secret until he could use it for himself. There were too many men like that. And now Ellen and all the rest of the world had to suffer. Mu. Atlantis. The asteroids that had perhaps once been a plant, destroyed, maybe, by a much more violent form of atomic breakdown. But who knew just what accidents might have caused these respective catastrophes? Science must sometimes get ahead of itself, without even outside influence. There was always a risk. * * * * * Sam's mind began to fade out, toward the nothingness of oblivion. Then the real miracle began to happen. The violence of it jarred his brain swiftly back toward a semblance of awareness. Suddenly everything around him was spouting blue electric flame. The table, the chairs, the walls, even the grass and trees beyond the open doorway rippled with a sort of aura. The phenomenon lasted for only two seconds. It snapped and growled like the first dash of some gigantic code signal. Then it broke off. Then it began again. Once more it stopped. And started. Sam, even had his mind been clear, could not have guessed how widespread the phenomenon was. He could not have known that, within a twenty mile radius fuses were blowing out, transformers were smoking in their oil-baths and generators were groaning under a terrific overload, as though their armatures had been gripped by an invisible colossus. But Sam could guess some of the might of the new phenomenon. His body convulsed like the body of a condemned culprit in an electric chair as shocks ripped through him. He could not imagine the origin of what was happening now, unless the forces he had unleashed had entered a new phase of destruction. Yet this did not seem to be true, for after the first spurt of unknown power had passed, that sonorous hum of doom had been completely strangled. Before the second spurt stopped there was a violent ripping explosion and the tinkling of broken window panes in the adjoining laboratory room. And that constricting paralysis and heat were gone from Sam's body. There were five bursts of strange energy, in all. Then it was over. Prodded by sheer startlement Sam got to his feet and found that, in spite of weakness, he could stand. His brain was clearer, too. Ellen Varney, unconscious before, was trying to rise. He helped her up and supported her against him.