The thirteenth second came and went without incident. The fourteenth—and then—directly in the center of the celestial target things happened. Both men simultaneously saw a tiny light flash for an instant across the dark side of the moon’s sunrise line, while a small black spot slowly grew in size on the sunlit side of the line. “Hurray! She hit dead center!” shouted Roger. Ted watched the black spot in silence for a moment. “Seems to have landed plumb in the middle of the crater, Hipparchus,” replied Ted. “Thought I had miscalculated the time, for an instant, but I see the reason now. We saw the flash just 1¼ seconds after it took place because it takes light that long to travel from the moon to the earth.” The black spot faded perceptibly. In a minute more it had disappeared completely. “There goes our evidence,” said Ted. “I hope they saw it while it lasted.” He called up through the speaking tube: “Back to Chicago, Bevans.” III. STARTLING RESULTS When Dustin reached his office in Chicago, he found a terse radiogram from the commander of the U.S. Aerial Battleship, Alaska, awaiting him. Just found the Hawaii, wrecked on surface of Pacific with radio out of commission. Official observers unable to see moon on account of clouds. Am towing the Hawaii to San Francisco. J. C. Farrell, Commander, _U.S.A.B. Alaska_. He read it in silence, then handed it to Sanders. “Does this mean that we lose, Ted?” he asked. “It means,” replied Ted, gamely trying to disguise the quiver of disappointment in his voice, “that Theodore Dustin, Inc., will be sold for the benefit of creditors—lock, stock and barrel, within the next thirty days.” During the days that followed, Ted and Roger were kept busy putting the affairs of the company in order, preparatory to turning it over to its creditors. At the final moment their attorney had secured them an extra thirty day extension, but this, after all, was only a prolonging of the agony. A Russian manufacturer had made the highest bid for the plant and patents, and sorrow prevailed in the entire organization when it was announced that the creditors would, in all probability, accept the bid. The indignant official observers had, as Ted had predicted, unanimously declared against even a probability that his projectile had struck the moon. True, an unofficial observer in Guatemala had reported seeing a flash and a dark cloud near the crater Herschel at the appointed time, but this statement was unsupported from other quarters and, therefore, of no value to Ted’s claims. The eruption and storm had made it impossible for the South American observatories to view the moon at all at that time, while all other observatories so situated as to have even slight opportunity for a glimpse at the proper moment, reported exceptionally cloudy weather.