From one of the pits beneath, a green ray of ordinary dimensions suddenly burst forth. Others flashed out, searching the sky for the marauder who had dared this attack on the mighty ray projector of P’an-ku. But Ted was flying so swiftly and his craft was so high in the air and so small that it was not easy for the Lunites to locate him. At the moment they only knew of his presence because the tip of the mountain peak which surrounded their green ray projector was rapidly melting away under the attack of his invisible rays. As he progressed toward the central peak, Ted noticed that the searching green rays grew thicker and thicker. Suddenly one sheared away the stern of his craft, and with it the rear atomotor outlets. The crippled vehicle was carried forward for a few seconds by its own momentum, but gradually succumbing to the insistent pull of gravity it deviated from its course—wobbled unsteadily, and began to fall groundward. Releasing his now useless atomotor controls, Ted concentrated his attention on the two forward degravitors. As his ship fell, wobbling this way and that, he kept his two ray guns steadily pointed at the mountain top from which the great green ray emerged. His craft was falling with terrific speed when he had the satisfaction of seeing the green ray wink out, and the section of the mountain top containing what was left of the projecting machinery, topple over, hurtle down the mountainside in an avalanche of debris, and crash to the ground in an enormous cloud of dust and smoke. But he had not noticed his own proximity to the crater floor. There came a sudden shock that smashed the keel of his craft like an egg shell—then oblivion. XVII. ALLIANCE Standing before the big radiovisiphone of the President of the United States, in Washington, Roger Sanders waited impatiently for the silencing of all terrestrial stations that he might be tuned in with Ted Dustin’s powerful super-station which was to relay a message from the moon. Presently the signal: “All clear,” came through, and Roger, looking into the disc of the President’s instrument, saw, as if reflected in a mirror, the huge disc of Ted’s radiovisiphone with the operator seated before it manipulating the dials. Indistinct figures appeared a number of times in the pellucid depths of the great disc, and there were a few unintelligible sounds. Then it suddenly cleared, and Roger and President Whitmore were dazzled, as before, by the appearance of the beautiful Maza with two armored guards and the aged scientist, Vanible Khan. To the surprise of both, Vanible Khan addressed them in English. “Despite the powerful interference waves broadcasted by P’an-ku, we have at last succeeded in breaking through,” he said. “Do I address friends of Ted Dustin?” “You are speaking to his superior, President Whitmore of the United States of America, and also to his assistant, Roger Sanders,” replied Roger.