“You are taking desperate chances, boy. It is doubtful if you will ever get near enough to the projector to destroy it, but if you do you will almost certainly be killed. I bid you farewell, and my prayers and those of our people go with you.” “I realize the chances and thank you for your good wishes. Goodbye,” replied Ted, closing his visor and turning to climb into his craft. Just as he placed his foot on the lower step a hand was laid on his arm. He turned and saw Maza, flushed and panting from the exertion of hurriedly climbing to the roof. As he turned and looked down into her eyes he saw they were flashing with anger. She reached up and raised his visor with dainty, pink-tipped fingers. “How dare you leave me, Ted Dustin, without saying farewell,” she said. “Why you might n-never come back.” A tear rolled down her velvety cheek, and she shook her fluffy head to dislodge it. He started to bend over—to kiss her hand. Her eyes softened—drew him to the beautiful upturned face. Before he knew what had happened, he was kissing her, and she was returning his kiss with closed eyes, her arms around his neck, her small, lithe body close to his. Suddenly he released her, leaped into the cab, and signaled the _nak-kar_ rider that he was ready. He elevated his craft slowly while the great dragon clumsily lumbered forward with wings outspread—took to the air, and circled upward toward a dark opening above. Although the flying reptile moved swiftly through the maze of passageways and caverns, evidently of volcanic origin, which led upward, it seemed to Ted that their progress was exceedingly slow. The _nak-kar_ rider kept his bright head lamp lighted until they reached the surface, where it was no longer necessary. Then, with a wave of his hand, he indicated a vertical band of green light which emerged from the northeastern horizon, and made a circle of green light on the face of the earth. With an answering wave of farewell, Ted seized the controls and gave the Lunite such an exhibition of speed as must have commanded his awe and wonder. Flying high above the moon’s surface in the tenuous lunar atmosphere, he traveled at a speed far surpassing that of the bullet cars which the Lunites used in traversing the glazed ray-valleys. As he progressed toward Copernicus he noticed that the valleys which radiated from Tycho grew fewer and further apart, and that there were other glazed valleys coming down from the north. While the former had appeared a glistening white in the sunlight, these latter were yellowish in appearance, evidently due to the fact that they were roofed with amber instead of clear glass. The great green ray, the projector of which it was his purpose to destroy, gave him the exact location of Copernicus and showed him that these yellow ray-valleys ramified from that place.