"No," said Pelton; "The light produced in the ray projectors must be many times as intense as that produced by ordinary lamps, in order to be effective at any considerable range. Only this new power plant could furnish sufficient energy. The filaments in the projectors would only glow on the power supplied by the old outfits." Momentarily the roar of _terrorium_ shells and the flashing of magnesium flares waxed more intense in the air above. In the few minutes that the big generator had been running, the Americans had annihilated practically three-quarters of their foes. However, a few were trying to escape into the night with their lights turned off. One fifteen-hundred-foot monster was directly above at an altitude of not more than half a mile. Its guns belching with the fury of despair at a smaller but much more agile American ship that was rapidly approaching. Suddenly the invaders scored a hit. The little vessel crumpled up and fell. The big ship was continuing its retreat away from the scene of battle when a bluish beam, originating from a projector in the neighborhood of Whitley Park, leaped up from the earth and struck it. The ray lingered over the whole expanse of its hull for a second and then died out. The dreadnaught continued to hurtle blindly on its way, its rocket-motors roaring full blast. It was headed straight for a sky-scraper, and a moment later it struck. A third of the building's height was sheared off; together with the twisted remnants of the ship the mass of steel and masonry fell with a terrific crash into the cleft of a dark street. There the airship still buzzed and hissed like a wounded insect. A wild impulse was surging up in the breast of Pelton--an intense desire to take an active part in the victory he had done so much to bring about. He turned to his companion: "Keep the outfit running, Jerry, I've simply got to be in this fight." As rapidly as his legs would carry him, the young scientist raced to the little shed nearby where he kept his flier. In his hand he carried a small black tube fitted with a pistol grip and trigger. It was a ray projector. In a moment he had dragged the little craft out and climbed into the cockpit. He turned a dial that operated the gravitational screen. There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness--and then he shot upward amid the gust of rising air. Three thousand feet Pelton ascended before he started his _terrorium_ rocket-motors. At a distance of perhaps half a mile, a "dog-fight" between countless small craft, was in progress. At first he thought there was no one in his immediate vicinity; and then, above him and a little to the north, he saw a flier similar to his own, but obviously Asiatic. A bar of opalescence leaped out from the little weapon in Pelton's hand, and the enemy pilot was no more.