Soon his aerials were white hot with the energy he threw into them. He then turned his flyer into such a position as to direct the outflowing energy towards the "comet's" head. The only result was to increase the luminosity of the "comet." Suddenly Llysanorh' realized that the "comet" was only fifty kilometers away. He noticed with horror that the head of the "comet" now seemed to fill up almost one-quarter of the "sky." Another discovery that came simultaneously was that instead of the "comet's" head being solid, there was a mysterious small black speck in the center of the nucleus. This was against both knowledge and theory of comets. When Ralph had brought his "comet" within fifty kilometers of Llysanorh', he felt that the time had come to throw off the mask. He had lured Llysanorh' to within striking distance. It was now time to strike. He had one great advantage over Llysanorh'. The latter was wholly unprepared, believing he had to deal with a comet. This facilitated Ralph's movements. He carefully insulated himself by sitting on a tall glass tripod. He then attached to his ears the telephone receivers that were connected with the induction balance,[13] which he had attached to one of the glass port-holes. He then started to turn the glass wheel of the ultra-generator, connected to the outside aerials. A terrible screaming sound came from the generator and the whole flyer shook. Ralph continued to turn the wheel quickly. The generator shrilled higher and higher, until the frequency had become so high that no sound could be heard. The vibrations had passed 35,000. Ralph turned the wheel a few more notches and everything became pitch-dark over a space sixty kilometers in diameter. As in his Switzerland exploit, two months before, Ralph's aerial on the space flyer due to the powerful action of his ultra-generator, attracted the ether so fast that it could not be replenished quickly enough. It acted much like an immense vacuum pump on the atmosphere. Darkness spread over a large area as the inky fluid of the octopus blackens the sea. Both flyers became invisible to each other. Ralph, however, pointed his machine on its former course and speeded it up. Llysanorh', dismayed by the unexpected darkness, had brought his machine to a dead stop. He was almost frantic with terror and stood like one paralyzed, unable to think or to act. Within a few minutes Ralph's induction balance caused his telephones to emit higher and higher notes, indicating, despite the pitch-black darkness, just how near he was to the other flyer. When he was certain that he had approached Llysanorh's machine, he suddenly shut off his ultra-generator. Quick as lightning he had grasped his radioperforer, and although the light which returned instantly blinded him for a few seconds, he had glimpsed Llysanorh's terrified face, just a few meters distant, his forehead pressed tight against the glass plate of the port-hole.