But even pilot O'Rourke, with the highest rating in the A. F. F., could not follow the lightning-swift leap of the snow-white thing that buried itself in the smother of cloud banks above. * * * * * Danny set his red ship down on that same barren hilltop; he motioned Morgan to follow as he stepped out. "We're somewhere in Pennsylvania," he announced. "You're stayin' here. Sorry to dump you out like this, but you'll find a way out. Get to a radio--call a plane." He held out his hand in unspoken farewell. But the other man disregarded it. "What's the idea?" he inquired. Danny's reply came in short, breathless sentences. "Going up to find that ship. Ram it. No use of your getting smashed up, too. Good-by, Infant; you're a good old scout." Danny's mind was all on what lay ahead; he was wildly eager to be off on the hunt. It took him an instant to comprehend the look from Morgan's steady, blue eyes. "Listen!" the younger man was ordering. "You're not going to do that; I am! And not just that way, either." "Did you see that cable and the electric discharges?" he demanded excitedly. "It's just as I thought: he accumulates a negative charge; he has to get rid of it--he's just like a thunder-cloud loaded with static--and the heat ray does it. I had it figured that way." "Remember the little tube you saw before--that's why I asked about the wire. I knew he would have to ground it without its going through his body." Danny O'Rourke was an intent listener now. When the Infant talked like this he was a person to be listened to with respect, even if all he said was not understood. "Now," said the Infant with finality, "let's forget this idea of ramming him. You couldn't hit him anyway; even a cruiser couldn't do it. If it could you would have radioed for a squadron an hour ago--you know that." * * * * * The pilot nodded his acknowledgment. "But, my God, man," he exploded, "I've got to do something; I've got to try!" "We'll do it," was the confident reply, "--or I will. Now we'll go back to the Consolidated Electric; they will have the Sorenson disintegrator ready. I'll put it in your machine and--" "And what?" broke in the pilot. "Is this some new death ray? We've been hearing about them for years--just hearing about them. If that's what you mean, then your idea is all wet; it's worse than mine. I'm going up." Perhaps the younger man saw something of the wild impatience in Danny's deep-sunk eyes. He laid a restraining hand on the pilot's arm while he explained: "No death ray, Danny--that will come later; we haven't got it now. But we've got the disintegration of matter--the splitting of the atom, on something bigger than a laboratory scale. Sorenson did it. There is a flood of electrical energy poured out--streams of electrons--negative electricity. It leaves a positive charge that is tremendous if it isn't neutralized.