The confusion of my thoughts dropped away. Death? There is a calmness comes to one who finds death at hand. It seemed that all my thoughts were sharpening--all my senses sharp and clear to hear Nereid’s whispered words of death. “--tear it, rip it away. It controls the current in the side pontoons, Jeff. If I break it, we will fall. You see? Fall the way the plane fell--kill us all.” Was the burning plane still almost beneath us? An eternity passed in these few whispering seconds. * * * * * “I’ll jump at the table, Jeff. You leap on the guard. He’ll fire at you--he’ll forget me. You see?” “Nereid--death, now?” “Yes. We’ll fall--but Jeff, those millions of people!” Death? Why, Polly was in that distant plane--Polly! I would never see her again. “Death, Nereid? You are right. Those millions of people or just us.” “Arturo--and your Polly--will remember us.” Her fingers seemed pressing a good-by. I answered it. Polly’s face was shining in my mind. Good-by, Polly-- “Jeff, when I start to move, you leap. Now--” “You wait, Nereid! A second after the guard has come after me! Your best chance then.” The figure of Bhool had come crouching toward us. He shouted a warning: “Rhana!” It may have distracted the guard. A rush of confusion was in the moonlit cabin. I leaped low at the guard’s legs; the upward desperate sweep of my arm struck his weapon; its stab missed me. Nereid’s leap landed her at the control table. The two women and Rhana were upon her; but her frantic clutching hands ripped and tore at the little coil. The cabin seemed to lurch; the shafts of moonlight swayed. Through the windows the abyss was turning over. We were falling, irrevocably. Every one in the cabin knew it. Death! The strife among us ceased abruptly; the women cast Nereid away and Bhool gave a long piercing scream of terror. Falling. But I saw Rhana spread her arms. Black folds of fabric hung like wings from them to her body. The metal strips on her limbs and her metal collar glowed green with a current in them. She flung open the door, gripping its casement to steady herself. I heard her words clearly. “So you wish death, you fools!” Realization swept me. She wore a device like the pontoons of this aëro to protect her, as a parachute once protected the old-fashioned aviator. She was on the deck. I recall snatching up Nereid, then leaped with her and caught Rhana at the rail. We three went over into the uprushing void. Rhana was struggling silently, and her arms flapped like a frantic bird. The wind rushed up at us. An endless fall. Momentarily I was aware of a gray shape like an arrow plunging past. A muffled, splintering crash came from below, where the aëro lay, mangled metal upon the rocks.