The discoverer of the crystal ray was in the act of turning around to join the "dog-fight" when a dozen or more bullets directed with an uncanny accuracy swept down upon him from above. He was unhurt, but a lead pellet had struck his weapon, destroying it completely. When he looked up, clammy fear seized him; for he saw a black flier painted with orange suns and piloted with a fiendish skill, diving straight toward him. Every inhabitant of the United States would have recognized that craft. It belonged to Saku, the ace who had shot more than a hundred opponents from the sky! Impelled by the instinct of self-preservation, Pelton shut off the power from his gravitational screen. It was all he could do. He thought that perhaps by a rapid dive he could escape the yellow ace; but it was a vain hope. Even as he began to fall plummet-like toward the earth, a gust of poisoned bullets ripped through his body. Probably his sense swam, and it was certain that he felt no pain; for death in those cases is a matter of an instant. Nevertheless a faint smile crossed his lips. Against the blackness of the eternity that poured into his brain, he seemed to see his name written so that people of the future would read with awe, and after his name the words: "_He won the war!_" THE END