ost hot enough to melt
water! If another of those vessels should attack us, in all probability
we should all be lost. Therefore we are leaving as rapidly as is
possible."

"You are taking the pieces of our ship along--we do not want to encumber
you."

"It is no encumbrance, since we have ample supplies of power. In fact,
we are now employing the highest acceleration we Titanians can endure
for any length of time."

Stevens pondered long, forgetting that his thoughts were plain as print
to the Titanian commander. Thank Heaven these strangers had sense enough
to be friendly--all intelligent races should be friends, for mutual
advancement. But it was a mighty long stretch to Saturn and this
acceleration wasn't so much. How long would it take to get there? Could
they get back? Wouldn't they save time by casting themselves adrift,
making the repairs most urgently needed, and going back to Ganymede
under their own power? But would they have enough power left in the
wreck to get even that far? And how about the big tube? He was
interrupted by an insistent thought from Barkovis.

"You will save time, Stevens, by coming with us to Titan. There we shall
aid you in repairing your vessel and in completing your transmitting
tube, in which we shall be deeply interested. Our power plants shall
supply you with energy for your return journey until you are close
enough to Jupiter to recover your own beam. You are tired. I would
suggest that you rest--that you sleep long and peacefully."

"You seem to be handling the _Forlorn Hope_ without any trouble--the
pieces aren't grinding at all. We'd better live there, hadn't we?"

"Yes that would be best, for all of us. You could not live a minute here
without your suits; and, efficiently insulated as those suits are, yet
your incandescent body temperature makes our rooms unbearably hot--so
hot that any of us must wear a space-suit while in the same room with
you, to avoid being burned to death."

"The incandescently hot" Terrestrials were wafted into the open airlock
of their lifeboat upon a wand of force, and soon had prepared a long
overdue supper, over which Stevens cast his infectious, boyish grin at
Nadia.

"Sweetheart, you are undoubtedly a 'warm number,' and you have often
remarked that I 'burn you up.' Nevertheless I think that we were both
considerably surprised to discover that we are both hot enough actually
to consume persons unfortunate enough to be confined in the same ro