ght, saw the sighting rings move as Santos
corrected for its speed.

The corporal fired. Fire flared back past his shoulder. The rocket flashed
away, its trail dwindling as it sped toward the great bulk above. It
reached brennschluss and there was darkness. Rip held his breath for long
seconds, then he gave a weak cry of victory.

A blossom of orange fire marked a perfect hit.

CHAPTER ELEVEN - HARD WORDS FOR O'BRINE

The _Scorpius_ could have taken direct hits with little or no major damage
from a hundred rockets of the kind Rip had used, but Commander O'Brine
took no chances. When the alarm bell signaled that the outer hull had been
hit, the commander acted instantly with a bellowed order.

The Planeteers on the asteroid blinked with the speed of the cruiser's
getaway. Fire flamed from the stern tubes for an instant and then there
was nothing but a fading glow where the _Scorpius_ had been.

Rip had a mental image of everything movable in the ship crashing against
bulkheads with the terrific acceleration.

And in the same moment, the Consops cruiser reacted. The Connie commander
was ready to fire guided missiles, when his target suddenly, mysteriously
blasted into space at optimum acceleration. There was only one reason the
Connie could imagine: his cruiser had been spotted. The ambush had failed.
It was one thing for the Connie to lie in ambush for a single, deadly
surprise blast at the Federation cruiser. It was quite another to face the
nuclear drive ship with its missile ports cleared for action. The Connie
knew he had lost.

Rip and the Planeteers saw the Consops ship suddenly flame away, then turn
and dive for low space below the asteroid belt in a direction opposite the
one the _Scorpius_ had taken. The helmet communicators rang with their
cheers.

The young officer clapped Santos on the shoulder and exclaimed weakly,
"Good shooting!"

The corporal turned anxiously to Koa. "The lieutenant's pretty weak. Can't
we do something?"

"Forget it," Rip said. There was nothing anyone could do. He was trapped
inside his space suit. There was nothing anyone could do for his wound
until he got into air.

Koa untied his safety line and moved to Rip's side. "Sir, this is
dangerous, but there's just as much danger without. I'm going to tie off
that arm."

Rip knew what Koa meant. He stood quietly as the big sergeant-major put
the line around his arm above the wound, then put his massive strength
int