"Come on," he snarled at Bjarnsson. "I remember you said you fly."

CHAPTER FOUR

A Dead Man Comes Back

It was a nightmare trip. The battle below was terribly clear. Twice they dodged flights of the giant rays, saved only because the scent of food kept the attention of the brutes on the ground.

The harbor basin at Wilmington was choked with slippery, struggling beasts. There was hardly a sign of shipping. Bjarnsson made for the flat top of a square building, completely surrounded.

A flight of rays went over just as they landed. A trap door in the roof raised and was slammed shut again.

"Now," said Fallon grimly, and jumped out.

They were almost to the trap when a ray sighted them. Fallon shot it through the eye, but others followed. Bjarnsson wrenched up the trap. A surprised yellow face peered up, vanished in a crimson smear.

Bjarnsson hauled the body out and threw it as far as he could. The rays fought over it like monstrous gulls over a fish head.

Fallen retched and followed Bjarnsson down.

There were three other men in the building. One tried to shoot it out and was killed. The others were mechanics, with no stomachs for the guns.

They looked over the sub, a small stubby thing of unusual design, and Bjarnsson nodded his gaunt shaggy head.

"These suits of leaded fabric," he said. "One big, for me. The other smaller, for Kashimo, perhaps. Can you get into it?"

Fallon grunted. "I guess so. Hey! Look there."

"Ha! A depth charge, held in the claws I use for picking specimens from the ocean floor. They have prepared well, Fallon."

"You know what that means!" Fallon was aware of a forgotten, surging excitement. His palms came together with a ringing crack.

"I was right! Kashimo was going to hold you here until the Government capitulated. Then he was going out to shut off the power. There's no projector, Bjarnsson. It was the volcano. If we can close that fissure while there's still resistance, we'll have 'em licked!"

Bjarnsson's ice-blue eyes fixed Fallon 

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