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Stern's heart went sick within hie welled up--a hate such as he had never believed possible to feel

Wild iether in a thin line, his eyes narrowed, and his face went gray

"The infernal little beasts!" he gritted "Tried to trap us in the tower--cut our boat loose afterward--and now invading us! Don't knohen they're licked, the swine!"

Beatrice had lost her color now Milk-white her face was; her eyes greith terror; she strove to speak, but could not

Her hand went out in a wild, repelling gesture, as though by the very power of her love for hoainst the incursion of these foul, distorted, inhuman little monsters

Stern acted quickly He had been about to cut off power and coast for the beach; but now he veered suddenly to eastward again, rotated the rising-plane, and brought the Pauillac up at a sharp tilt Banking, he advanced the spark a notch; the engine shrilled a half-tone higher, and with increased speed the aero lifted the swoop

He snatched his automatic from its holster on his hip and as the plane swept past the beach, down-stream, let fly a spatter of steel jacketed souvenirs at the fast-thickening pack on the sand

Far up to the girl and hih the clatter of thechorus, bestial and horrible

Again Stern fired

He could see quick spurts of water jet up along the edge of the sand, and one of the creatures fell, but this was only a chance shot

At that distance, firing fro plane, he knew he could do no execution, and with a curse slid the pistol back again into its place

"Oh, for a dirigible and a few Pulverite bombs, sahters out , with a cry of disalow itself, which had for aas the Pauillac scudded past

Even as Stern thought: "Odd, but they're not afraid of us--a flying- to thees They're too debased even to feel fear!"--even as this thought crossed his brain he, too, saw the terrible thing that the girl had cried out at sight of

"My God!" he shouted "This--this is too alow, their home, the scene of such happy hours, solabors, hundreds of the Horde were swar