There was one pursuer behind them that seemed to Kendall, as he watched through the lens, almost to be upon them. It was, he knew, some half-mile away in reality. He could see the curiously pitted nose of the craft, note the weirdly-streamlined mass. He observed, with astonishment, a little piece of wire seemingly flying loose from a bearing on one of the strange ships, which was streaming off behind as if in a stiff breeze. Yet space about them was empty! "Look out!" called Seaward from the forward scope. "Here's more of them." Coming around the planet from behind, spreading out along the side as if to form a welcoming arch were more of the weird ships. "That ties it," exclaimed Broster. "We'll never be able to pass the planet. It's either land or crash." [Illustration: "_We'll never be able to pass the planet. It's either land or crash._"] "Then we crash," came the response. "Man the guns!" yelled Broster. "Let's see how many we can take with us before we go." The three others swung in the various weapons and trained them on the surrounding ships. Explosion-torpedo cannon, twin-rays for electric jolting comprised the types of offensive guns. They were getting very close to the planet, now. And it seemed as if the red ships were expecting the _Astralite_ to slow down, for their beams shot occasionally in front of the earth-ship. The carmine bulk of the planet loomed up over most of the view now. It was too late to shunt aside. "Fire!" No sound, no roar of explosions. They watched eagerly for results. But there were none. Not a single torpedo appeared to have hit its mark, not a single twin-ray seemed to bathe the surrounding ovoids. They fired again. Kendall swore. The course of one torpedo was the stimulus; he watched it, saw its dark mass approach the nose of one of the vessels behind. Then he swears he saw it strike--and disappear. Firing was useless. These ships were invulnerable to their weapons. Broster looked up, bracing himself. "Stand by to crash!" The four stopped everything, turned to look at each other for a moment in silence. In a few seconds more they would simply cease to exist. No pain, no hours of lingering agony trapped in the wreckage. At the speed they were going, the entire ship would be volatilized, would fuse into a molten, glowing mass. They turned again to the plates to look for a last time at the universe around them. For six years they had traveled away from earth, far, far beyond any point man had ever dreamed of reaching. They were almost to the point where the order to turn back would have been given. Much had been learned; now it would be lost. Broster gave her full acceleration. They saw the planet seemingly leap toward them, saw cloudbanks flick past them. A great flat plain of ruddy rock, a dread expanse of barren granite. This in the veriest fragment of a second, then-- A momentary shock, as if each man had received an electrical jolt; a sudden flash of intolerable red. Darkness.