There was sudden silence among the Terrestrials as one of the tiny planes darted forward and dove at full speed directly toward one of the giant's propellers. There were fifty of these strung along each great wing. If enough of them could be destroyed, the plane must crash. There came a terrific crash--a flare of light--and splintered fragments of flaming wreckage plummeted down. Yet the mighty blades continued whirling as smoothly as ever! What could the _Solarite_ do against the giant monoplane? Evidently Arcot had a plan. Under his touch their machine darted high into the sky above the great plane. There was a full mile between them when he released the sustaining force of the _Solarite_ and let it drop, straight toward the source of the battle--falling freely, ever more and more rapidly. They were rushing at the mighty plane below at a pace that made their hearts seem to pause--then suddenly Arcot cried out, "Hold on--here we stop!" They seemed a scant hundred feet from the broad metal wings of the unsuspecting plane, when suddenly there was a tremendous jerk, and each man felt himself pressed to the floor beneath a terrific weight that made their backs crack with the load. Doggedly they fought to retain their senses; the blackness receded. Below them they saw only a mighty sea of roaring red flames--a hell of blazing gas that roared like a score of bombs set off at once. The _Solarite_ was sitting down on her rocket jets! All six of the rocket tubes in the base of the ship had been opened wide, and streaming from them in a furious blast of incandescent gas, the atomic hydrogen shot out in a mighty column of gas at 3500 degrees centigrade. Where the gas touched it, the great plane flared to incandescence; and in an immeasurable interval the fall of the _Solarite_ ended, and it rebounded high into the air. Arcot, struggling against the weight of six gravities, pulled shut the little control that had sent those mighty torches blasting out. An instant later they sped away lest the plane shoot toward the gas columns. From a safe distance they looked back at their work. No longer was the mighty plane unscathed, invulnerable, for now in its top gaped six great craters of incandescent metal that almost touched and coalesced. The great plane itself reeled, staggering, plunging downward; but long before it reached the hard soil below, it was brought into level flight, and despite many dead engines, it circled and fled toward the south. The horde of small planes followed, dropping a rain of bombs into the glowing pits in the ship, releasing their fury in its interior. In moments the beings manning the marauder had to a large extent recovered from the shock of the attack and were fighting back. In a moment--just before the ship passed over the horizon and out of sight--the Terrestrians saw the great props that had been idle, suddenly leap into motion, and in an instant the giant had left its attackers behind--fleeing from its invisible foe.