“Tonight,” Gabriel was saying, as he stood there in the gathering dusk—­they dared not show a light, even behind the drawn curtains of their refuge—­“tonight, comrades, the final die is cast.  Everything is ready, or as nearly ready as we shall ever be able to make it.  Our reports already show that every line of communication has been broken by one swift, sharp blow.  True, in a few hours all these avenues can be opened up again.  By morning, the Niagara works will be in receipt of messages; trains will be running; the troop-planes will be carrying their hordes at the command of Flint.  By morning, yes.  But in the meantime—­”

He spread his fingers, upward, with an expressive gesture.

“By morning,” Craig mumbled, “what will there be left to protect?”

A little silence followed.  Each was busy with his own thoughts.

All at once, one of the three newcomers spoke—­a tall, light-haired fellow, he seemed, in that dim light, with a strong Southern accent.

“Pardon me for asking, Gabriel,” said he, removing a pipe from his mouth, “or for discussing details familiar to you all.  But, coming as I have come direct from the New Orleans refuge—­they blew it up, last week, you know—­of course I haven’t got things as clearly in mind yet, as you-all have.  Now, as I understand it, while we manoeuvre over the plant, blow up the barricades and, if possible, ‘get’ the oxygen-tanks, our men on the ground will pour in through the gaps and storm the place, under the command of Edward Hargreaves.  Is that the idea?”

“Exactly, Comrade Marion,” answered Gabriel.  “You’ve hit it to a T.”

Craig laughed grimly, as he drew at his pipe.

“Just as we’re going to hit those big tanks!” said he.  “It’s tonight or never, comrades.  They’re putting steel nets over them, already.  By tomorrow the whole place will be protected by huge grill-work fully a hundred feet above the tops of the tanks.  Oh, they seem to have thought of everything, those plutes!  But they’ll be just a shade too late, this time; just a shade too late!”

Another silence, broken again by the tall Southerner.

“Just let me get this thing quite clear,” said he.  “We’re to start at 5:30, you say, walk past the Welland Canal Feeder out to the Monck Aviation Grounds, and find everything ready there?”

“Correct,” said Gabriel.  “All six of us.  That’s our part of the program.  Comrades you don’t know, out there—­comrades in the employ of the Air Trust itself—­will have six machines ready.  One of them will be the very machine that they tried to get us with, in the Great Smokies!  So you see, we’re going to use the Air Trust equipment, their field and even their own telenite, to put them out of business forever and to free the world!”

“Poetic justice, all right enough!” laughed Marion.  “At the same time that we’re attacking from an elevation of perhaps three thousand feet, the lateral attack will be delivered.  About how many men do you count, on, for that?”