ake all day at full drive to overtake him." Cleveland was
frankly puzzled. "What to do? Shunt in a potentiometer?"

"No, we don't need it." Rodebush turned to the transmitter. "Costigan!
We are going to take hold of you with a very light tractor. Don't cut
it!"

"A tractor--inertialess?" Cleveland wondered.

"Why not?" Rodebush launched the tractor, set at its absolute minimum of
power, and threw in his master switches.

While hundreds of thousands of miles separating the two vessels and the
tractor beam was exerting the least effort of which it was capable, yet
the super-ship leaped toward the smaller craft at a pace which covered
that distance in the twinkling of an eye. So rapidly were the objectives
enlarging upon the plates that the automatic focusing devices could
scarcely function rapidly enough to keep them in place. Cleveland
flinched involuntarily and seized his arm-rests in a spasmodic clutch as
he watched this, the first inertialess space-approach; and even
Rodebush, who knew better than anyone else what to expect, held his
breath and swallowed hard at the unbelievable rate at which the two
vessels were rushing together.

And if these two, who had rebuilt the space-flyer, could hardly control
themselves, what of the three in the speedster, who knew nothing
whatever of the super-ship's potentialities? Clio, staring into the
plate with Costigan, uttered a piercing shriek, as she sank her fingers
into his shoulders. Bradley swore a mighty deep-space oath and braced
himself against certain annihilation. Costigan stared for an instant,
unable to believe his eyes, then his hand darted to the contacts which
would cut the beam. Too late. Before his flying fingers could reach the
studs the _Boise_ was upon them; had struck them in direct central
impact. Moving at the full measure of her unthinkable velocity though
the super-ship was at the moment of impact, yet the most delicate
recording instruments of the speedster could not detect the slightest
shock as the enormous globe struck the comparatively tiny torpedo and
clung to it; accommodating instantly and effortlessly her own terrific
pace to that of the smaller and infinitely slower craft. Clio sobbed in
relief and Costigan, one arm around her, sighed hugely.

"Hey, you space-fleas!" he cried. "Glad to see you and all that, but you
might as well kill a man outright as scare him to death! So that's the
super-ship, huh? SOME ship!"

"Hello, Conway!" "Clear et