id, "have
I seen a ship large enough to hold two commanding pilots. I take your
orders in all things, Herr Schwartzmann--all but this. If we die--we
die."

Schwartzmann sputtered: "We should haff turned away. Even yet we
might. It will--it will--"

"Perhaps," agreed Kreiss, still in that precise, class-room voice,
"perhaps it will. But this I know: with an acceleration of one
thousand m.p.h. as this young man with the badge of a Master Pilot
says, we cannot hope, in the time remaining, to overcome our present
velocity; we can never check our speed and build up a relatively
opposite motion before that globe would overwhelm us. If he has
figured correctly, this young man--if he has found the true resultant
of our two motions of approach--and if he has swung us that we may
drive out on a line perpendicular to the resultant--"

"I think I have," said Chet quietly. "If I haven't, in just a few
minutes it won't matter to any of us; it won't matter at all." He met
the gaze of Herr Doktor Kreiss who regarded him curiously.

"If we escape," the scientist told him, "you will understand that I am
under Herr Schwartzmann's command; I will be compelled to shoot you if
he so orders. But, Herr Bullard, at this moment I would be very proud
to shake your hand."

And Chet, as he extended his hand, managed a grin that was meant also
for the tense, white-faced Harkness and Diane. "I like to see 'em
dealt that way," he said, "--right off the top of the deck."

But the smile was erased as he turned back to the lookout. He had to
lean close to see all of the disk, so swiftly was the approaching
globe bearing down.

* * * * *

It came now from the side; it swelled larger and larger before his
eyes. Their own ship seemed unmoving; only the unending thunder of the
generator told of the frantic efforts to escape. They seemed hung in
space; their own terrific speed seemed gone--added to and fused with
the orbital motion of the Dark Moon to bring swiftly closer that
messenger of death. The circle expanded silently; became menacingly
huge.

Chet was whispering softly to himself: "If I'd got hold of her an hour
sooner--thirty minutes--or even ten.... We're doing over twenty
thousand an hour combined speed, and we'll never really hit it....
We'll never reach the ground."

He turned this over in his mind, and he nodded gravely in confirmation
of his own conclusions. It seemed somehow of tremendous importance