"Two seconds of arc, east; try that. The damned thing is shifting." He
gripped me. "It's at the eastern edge of the field; it shifts off. It
must be in rapid motion."
Then I saw it, a mere moving dot of black; but suddenly it clarified.
I saw a dot which I could imagine was a shape with discs along its
edge, moving with high velocity. Grantline was shifting our field to
hold it.
"Got it, Gregg. By God, that's it! Now we'll see."
Then presently we saw that from its bow a very faint radiant beam was
streaming. Beside me I heard Grantline gasp, "Gregg, am I crazy or is
that bow beacon like the light-beam planted in Greater New York?"
There did seem to be a similarity, but thought of it abruptly was
swept from my mind. Our cubby was alive with signals. Both the bow and
the stern observers saw the enemy ship now with their 'scopes gazing
directly along our Benson-light. And Drac was calling, "I've got the
measurement of its velocity. Doubling every ten seconds. God, what
acceleration!"
I flung off the Benson-light. The enemy ship had come from behind the
limb of the Moon; our straight-light telescopes showed it clearly. It
was heading unmistakably in our direction.