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* * * * *

“But I can’t understand their appearance in the charts,” muttered Hendricks doggedly, still turning that matter over in his mind. “Unless … unless … ah! I’ll venture I have it, sir! The charts are operated by super-radio reflexes; in others words, electrically. They would naturally be extremely sensitive to an electrical disturbance. Those things are electrical in nature. Highly so. That’s the reason for the flare of light on the charts.”

“Sounds logical,” said Correy immediately. “The point, as I see it, is not what they are, but what we’re to do about them. Do you believe, sir, that they are dangerous?”

“Let me ask you some questions to answer that one,” I suggested. “Two ships are reported lost in space–in this immediate vicinity. We come here to determine the cause of those losses. We find ourselves the evident objective of a horde of strange things which we cannot identify; which Mr. Hendricks, here, seems to have good reason to believe are somehow electrical in nature. Putting all these facts together, what is the most logical conclusion?”

“That these things caused the two lost ships to be reported missing in space!” said Hendricks.

* * * * *

I glanced at Kincaide, and he nodded gravely.

“And you, Mr. Correy?” I asked.

Correy shrugged.

“I believe you’re, right, sir. They seem like such rather flimsy, harmless things, though, that the disintegrator rays will take care of without difficulty. Shall I order the ray operators to their stations, sir?”

“Do that, please. And take personal charge of the forward projectors, will you? Mr. Hendricks, will you command the after projectors? Mr. Kincaide and I will carry on here.”

“Shall we open upon them at will, or upon orders, sir?” asked Correy.

“Upon orders,” I said. “And you’ll get your orders as soon as they’re in range; I have a feeling we’re in for trouble.”

“I hope so, sir!” grinned Correy from the door.

Hendricks followed him silently, but I saw there was a deep, thoughtful frown between his brows.

“I think,” commented Kincaide quietly, “that Hendricks is likely to be more useful to us in this matter than Correy.”

I nodded, and bent over the television disk. The things were perceptibly nearer; the hurtling group nearly filled the disk, now.

There was something horribly eager, horribly malignant, in the way they shone, so palely red, and in the fashion in which their blunt tentacles reached out toward the Ertak.

I glanced up at the Earth clock on the wall.

“The next hour,” I said soberly, “cannot pass too quickly for me!”

* * * * *

We had decelerated steadily during the hour, but we were still above maximum atmospheric speed when at last I gave the order to open the invaders with disintegrator rays. They were close, but of course the rays are not as effective in space as when operating in a more favorable medium, and I wished to make sure of our prey.

I pressed the attention signal to Correy’s post, and he answered instantly.

“Ready, Mr. Correy?”

“Ready, sir!”

“Then commence action!”

Before I could repeat the command to Hendricks, I heard the deepening note of the atomic generators, and knew Correy had already begun operations.

Together, and silently, Kincaide and I bent over the television disk. We watched for a moment, and then, with one accord, lifted our heads and looked into each other’s eyes.

“No go, sir,” said Kincaide quietly.

I nodded. It was evident the disintegrator rays were useless here. When they struck into the horde of crescent-shaped things coming so hungrily toward us, the things changed from red to a sickly, yellowish pink, and seemed to writhe, as though in some discomfort, but that was all.