"Where did you come from, anyway?" the voice inquired. I said nothing. "Then I'll give you a chance to tell somebody else, Pard." A dark-faced man in red uniform stepped out of the shadow of the building. He searched me, and discovered the Doctor's little weapon. "What's this, Pard?" he asked quickly. Desperately I cudgeled my brain. "It's--er--a patent radium cigarette lighter. Inventor gave it to me. I broke it the other day." He looked at me sharply. I tried to assume indifference; and he handed it back. "Forward march, and no tricks," he ordered, and prodded me with the bayonet until I would have given a good deal to know the secret of the little weapon he had returned to me. Presently we reached a low concrete building. He put me past a barred door, and locked it. I was left alone in the dark. Presently I struck the few matches I had, to examine the little weapon. I set the dial by guess, and found the tiny lever that lit the tube with the soft crimson light, but I could not test it. Toward morning I had an incredible visitor! A pale violet light was suddenly thrown through the bars of the door. I looked up to see the amazing Thing before it, regarding me. It was octopus-like, with a central body upheld on a dozen whip-like tentacles! But it was luminous, purple, semi-transparent! The shapeless glowing purple body had a nucleus of red--a little sphere of intense red light embedded in the shining form. It seemed like a terrible eye, watching me. For a moment the awful thing was there, and then it moved silently away, drawing itself upon the slender gleaming tentacles. It left me weak and trembling. I hardly dared believe my eyes. Was this one of the "beings from another plane" with which Vars had allied himself in his insane attack against the earth? CHAPTER IV The City Above the Air At last the light of day, filtering through my prison bars, aroused me from a terrible dream of a gleaming purple octopus that was crushing and strangling me in its coils. Little did I realize how soon that dream was to become a reality! The red-uniformed sentry came and brought me a little breakfast. I tried to engage him in conversation as I ate, but all I could get out of him was "Aw, shut your trap, Pard!" He ordered me out of the cell. As I stood outside, blinking in the blaze of morning sunshine, I saw that the crater had been deserted since I had entered. The rows of great sheds were empty, with doors ajar. The long lines of red planes were gone. Even the great ship into which I thought Ellen and the others were taken was not to be seen. The radio station appeared to have been dismantled. There were no more than a dozen airplanes left in the pit; and even as I looked, some of these took off and spiraled up into the sky. Had the maniac finished his preparations for an attack upon the earth? Had his dreadful army gone forth to begin the ruin of the world?