"At it, at last! By the way our men have launched the attack, the first explosion must have breached a wall! God! What wouldn't I give to be down there, in the thick of it, rather than here! I--" _Crash_! Again a spouting geyser of light and uproar burst into mid-air.
"That was _my_ thanatos speaking!" cried Gabriel.

"Now for another!" Before he could drop it, as he circled round and round, directly over the great, flailing beams of the Air Trust search-lights, a third detonation shattered the heavens, nearly unseating him.

Up sprang the roar, with wonderful intensity, reflected from the earth as from a giant sounding-board.

And Gabriel noted, with keen satisfaction, that one of the huge light-beams had gone dark.
"Put out _one_ of them, anyway, so far!" thought he, and swung again to westward, and once more dropped a messenger of death to tyranny.
Now the bombardment became general.

Trust aerial-gun projectiles began bursting all about.