nts of the vessel were not worth saving; that its upper half
was all that they should attempt to tow the enormous distance back to
Tellus. The pace of the _Sirius_ was adjusted to that of the floating
masses, and tractor beams were clamped upon the undamaged portion of the
derelict, and upon the two slices from the nose of the craft. A couple
of the larger fragments of wreckage were also taken, to furnish metal
for the repairs which would be necessary. Acceleration was brought
slowly up to normal, and the battle-scarred cruiser of the void, with
her heavy burden of inert metal, resumed her interrupted voyage toward
Europa; the satellite upon which the passengers and crew of the
ill-fated _Arcturus_ had been so long immured. On she bored through the
ether, detector screens full out and greenly scintillant Vorkulian
wall-screens outlining her football shape in weird and ghastly light;
unafraid now of any possible surviving space-craft of the hexans.

But if the hexans detected her, they made no sign. Perhaps their fleet
had been destroyed utterly; perhaps it had been impressed upon even
their fierce minds that those sparkling green screens were not to be
molested with impunity! The satellite was reached without event and down
into the crater landing shaft the two enormous masses of metal dropped.

Callisto's foremost citizens were on hand to welcome the Terrestrial
rescuers, and revelry reigned supreme in that deeply buried Europan
community. All humanity celebrated. The Callistonians rejoiced because
they were now freed from the age-old oppression of the hexan hordes;
because they could once more extend their civilization over the Jovian
satellites and live again their normal lives upon the surface of those
small worlds.

The Terrestrials were almost equally enthusiastic in the reunion that
marked the end of the long imprisonment of the refugees.

As soon as the hull of the _Arcturus_ had been warmed sufficiently to
permit inspection, its original passengers were allowed to visit it
briefly, to examine and to reclaim their belongings. Of course, some
damage had been done by the cold of interplanetary space, but in general
everything was as they had left it. Stevens and Nadia were among the
first permitted aboard. They went first to the control room, where
Stevens found his bag still lying behind Breckenridge's desk, where he
had thrown it when he first boarded the vessel. Then they made their
way up to Nadia's statero