There it was--that for which I sought. Clear through the darkened lenses I could see the sun spot, high up on the northern-most limb of the sun. An unimaginable cyclone of incandescent gases; an unthinkably huge dynamo pouring its floods of electro-magnetism upon all the circling planets; that solar crater which we now know was, when at its maximum, all of one hundred and fifty thousand miles across; the great sun spot of the summer of 1919--the most enormous ever recorded by astronomical science. Five minutes had gone by. Common sense whispered to me. There was no use keeping my eyes fixed to the glasses. Even if that thought were true--even if that pillar of radiance were a MESSENGER, an earth-hurled bolt flying to the sun through atmosphere and outer space with the speed of light, even if it were this stupendous creation of these Things, still between eight and nine minutes must elapse before it could reach the orb; and as many minutes must go by before the image of whatever its impact might produce upon the sun could pass back over the bridge of light spanning the ninety millions of miles between it and us. And after all did not that hypothesis belong to the utterly impossible? Even were it so--what was it that the Metal Monster expected to follow? This radiant shaft, colossal as it was to us, was infinitesimal compared to the target at which it was aimed. What possible effect could that spear have upon the solar forces? And yet--and yet--a gnat's bite can drive an elephant mad. And Nature's balance is delicate; and what great happenings may follow the slightest disturbance of her infinitely sensitive, her complex, equilibrium? It might be--it might be-- Eight minutes had passed. “Take the glasses,” I bade Drake. “Look up at the sun spot--the big one.” “I see it.” He had obeyed me. “What of it?” Nine minutes. The shaft, if I were right, had by now touched the sun. What was to follow? “I don't get you at all,” said Drake, and lowered the glasses. Ten minutes. “What's happening? Look at the Cones! Look at the Emperor!” gasped Drake. I peered down, then almost forgot to count. The pyramidal flame that had been the mount of Cones was shrunken. The pillar of radiance had not lessened--but the mechanism that was its source had retreated whole yards within the field of its crystal base. And the Metal Emperor! Dulled and faint were his fires, dimmed his splendors; and fainter still were the violet luminescences of the watching Stars, the shimmering livery of his court. The Keeper of the Cones! Were not its outstretched planes hovering lower and lower over the gleaming tablet; its tentacles moving aimlessly, feebly--wearily? I had a sense of force being withdrawn from all about me. It was as though all the City were being drained of life--as though vitality were being sucked from it to feed this pyramid of radiance; drained from it to forge the thrusting spear piercing sunward.