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THE MOUNTAIN CONCLAVE.
XVI. THE FIRE PLANET.
XVII. THE FIGHT AT THE BAYOU.
XVIII. REVOLUTION.
XIX. THE NEW RULER.
XX. IN THE TWILIGHT COUNTRY.
XXI. ANOTHER LIGHT-RAY!
XXII. THE THEFT OF THE LIGHT-RAY.
XXIII. THE STROM.
XXIV. THE WATER CITY.
XXV. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.
XXVI. THE BATTLE.
XXVII. THE SIEGE OF THE LONE CITY.
XXVIII. THE END OF TAO.
CHAPTER I.
THE COMING OF THE LIGHT.
The first of the new meteors landed on the earth in November, 1940. It was discovered by a farmer in his field near Brookline, Massachusetts, shortly after daybreak on the morning of the 11th. Astronomically, the event was recorded by the observatory at Harvard as the sudden appearance of what apparently was a new star, increasing in the short space of a few hours from invisibility to a power beyond that of the first magnitude, and then as rapidly fading again to invisibility. This star was recorded by two of the other great North American observatories, and by one in the Argentine Republic. That it was comparatively small in mass and exceedingly close to the earth, even when first discovered, was obvious. All observers agreed that it was a heavenly body of an entirely new order.
The observatory at Harvard supplemented its account by recording the falling, just before dawn of the 11th, of an extraordinarily brilliant meteor that flamed with a curious red and green light as it entered the earth's atmosphere. This meteor did not burn itself out, but fell, still retaining its luminosity, from a point near the zenith, to the horizon.
What the farmer saw was a huge fire burning near the center of his field. It was circular in form and about thirty feet in diameter. He was astonished to see it there, but what surprised him more was its peculiar aspect.
It was still the twilight of dawn when he reached the field. He beheld the fire