you'd care to tell me where you've been or what you've got in mind, Standish."

Without answering Standish gazed at the maps and the photograph. Presently he looked up.

"Prepare for a big push," he said. "Get all your guns and men ready for immediate movement. And keep your observers watching this point, Sector Five"—he indicated the area with his forefinger—"As soon as the firing stops there, go through."

He turned then and ran back to the ship.

Straight into the stratosphere Standish guided the ship. As he continued to climb higher into the night sky, Ga-Marr watched puzzled, but made no comment. One thousand, two, three thousand miles slid behind them. At length the Earthman turned.

"Set off the emergency rocket flares," he ordered.

Ga-Marr stared. "Are you mad, Mason? The Sirians will see us and...."

"Which is just what I want," Standish replied. "Hurry, man!"

Obediently Ga-Marr strode back along the passageway, began to push contact buttons at regular intervals along the bulkhead wall. As he did, long streamers of crimson fire erupted from the Phantom's side. In a moment the destroyer was a flaming mass. Standish set his controls and took down two space suits.

He donned one of them, motioned Ga-Marr into the other. Then he tied a rope to the lever controlling the magnetic grappling bar, trailing it across the floor to the airlock.

"All right, Ga-Marr," he said. "Here we go."

The lock door slid open at his touch. Then and not until then did Ga-Marr understand. Directly below them, held to the Phantom's hull by the magnetic bars was their crude space ship. Balancing himself cautiously, Standish reached down and opened the hatch. He climbed in, and Ga-Marr quickly followed. Then the Earthman gave the rope a jerk. The grappling bars released, and the two ships drifted apart.

Alone and unmanned, the Phantom swept downward, her exploding rockets a blaze of glory in the black sky.

"And there goes the fleet!" Standish said. "They've sighted the Phantom."

Aware that hundreds of glasses must now be turned upward, he headed south beyond the outskirts of the city. He selected a flat open space by the 

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