It only took seconds, while the continuum heaved and strained to regain its equilibrium and the sensitive nervous systems of those in the laboratory tingled and screamed to the dictates of flowing energy. Seconds only it took for that flying column of energy to reach the black circle that was the negative mass that menaced Terra. [Illustration: It took only seconds for the flying column of energy to reach the black circle of the negative mass that menaced Terra.] Yes, seconds only, it took. The negative mass that menaced Sol could not have been far away. Then cylinder and sphere met in a singular lack of display. The cylinder, narrow but shining, bored into the sphere, dark and menacing. Perceptibly, the sphere slowed, dragged, came to a halt--then accelerated in the reverse direction. In milliseconds the celestial body of negative mass had been stopped and re-started on its return trip. It accelerated swiftly, the acceleration-factor itself rising as the energy from the column became the energy of motion of the negative mass. A negative mass--similar to a negative energy-level--demands energy before it can be stable. Its demands were satisfied and then satiated. It raced into unthinkable velocities before the column of energy was all used up and still the column poured into the negative mass. It could not have been accomplished against a positive mass but the negative mass possessed negative inertia. The harder it was driven, the less energy it took to drive it harder. Across space it went, becoming a pinpoint in Carroll's artificial viewplate. The stars of the galaxy behind it shone brightly--all but the one directly in line with the flight of the negative mass. Then, as the spacial stresses diminished and a man could think again in that area, there was a tiny flash on the viewplate. And James Forrest Carroll laughed. "Finis!" he roared. King shook himself. "You madman! You destroying fiend--get him!" The laboratory echoed and re-echoed with the wild thunder of released energy. Rhine dropped beside Carroll. Her right hand flicked up to a switch on the panel, and out of thin air there appeared a tenuous inverted bowl of light. Flying bits of metal as well as the bursts of released energy deflected from the inverted bowl. Painfully, Carroll stood up and advanced across the floor towards Kingallis and his cohorts. He walked through a veritable tornado of sheer death, and Rhinegallis followed him because to get outside of his protecting shield was to die. They looked at him as they would have viewed a specter, for he advanced through their hail of death unharmed. In fright they herded back, their weapons lowered helplessly. Cornered and helpless against the teleport they waited, shivering in fright. "You said once," snarled Carroll, "that the universe was not large enough for your kind and mine. As I have destroyed your world so I'll destroy you!"