With a shattering crash as Murray Lee gave her all the acceleration she would take, the _Monitor_ left the ramp, soared once or twice to gain altitude, and headed north amid a chorus of explosions. In less than ten minutes the thickly-settled districts of northern New Jersey were flowing past beneath them. "Wish we had some radio in this bus," remarked Ben Ruby. "We could keep in touch with what's going on." "It would be convenient," said Sherman, "but you can't have everything. The Lassans aren't going to wait for us to work out all our problems.... Look--what's that over there?" At nearly the same level as themselves and directly over the city of Newark a huge globular object, not unlike an enormous green cantaloupe, appeared to float in the air. From its under side the thin blue beam of some kind of ray reached to the ground. From the face turned diagonally away from them a paler, wider beam, yellowish in color, reached down toward the buildings of the city. And where it fell on them, they collapsed into shattering ruin; roof piled on walls, chimneys tumbled to the ground. There was no flame, no smoke, no sound--just that sinister monster moving slowly along, demolishing the city of Newark almost as though it were by an effort of thought. "Hold tight, everybody," cried Sherman. "Going up." The _Monitor_ slanted skyward. Through the heavy quartz of her windows they could see a battery of field guns, cleverly concealed behind some trees in the outskirts of the city, open fire. At the first bursts the monster globe swung slowly round, the pale yellow ray cutting a swath of destruction as it moved. The shells of the second burst struck all around and on it. "Oh, good shooting," said Gloria, but even as she spoke the yellow ray bore down like a fate and the guns became silent. "What have they got?" she shouted between the bursts of the _Monitor's_ rocket motor. "Don't know," replied Sherman, "but it's good. Ready? Here goes. Cut off, Murray." From an altitude of 15,000 feet the _Monitor_ swept down in a long curve. As she dived Gloria swung the searchlight beam toward the green globe. "Go!" shouted Sherman, and Ben threw the switch. There was a terrific explosion, the _Monitor_ pitched wildly, then, under control swung round and began to climb again. Through the thinning cloud of yellow smoke, they could see a long black scar across the globe's top, with lines running out from it, like the wrinkles on an old, old face. "Damn!" said Sherman. "Only nicked him. They must have something good in the line of armor on that thing. Look how it stood up. Watch it, everybody, we're going to go again, Gloria!"