t dare load those
accumulators to peak capacity. He's got to leave enough carrying
capacity in the cells to handle any jolts we send him and he knows we
can send him plenty. He has to keep that handling margin at all times,
over and above what he takes in for power, because his absorption screen
is also a defensive screen. And he has to use some power to keep our
television apparatus out."

Russ chuckled. "I suppose, at that, we have him plenty worried."

The thunder of the engines filled the control room. For days now that
thunder had been in their ears. They had grown accustomed to it, now
hardly noticed it. Ten mighty engines, driving the _Invincible_ at a
pace no other ship had ever obtained, except, possibly, the
_Interplanetarian_, although lack of power should have held Craven's
ship down to a lower speed. Craven wouldn't have dared to build up the
acceleration they had now attained, for he would have drained his banks
and been unable to charge them again.

"Maybe he won't fight," said Russ. "Maybe he's figured out by this time
that he's heading for the wrong star. He may be glad to see us and
follow us back to the Solar System."

"No chance of that. Craven and Chambers won't pass up a chance for a
fight. They'll give us a few wallops if only for the appearance of
things."

"We're crawling up all the time," said Russ. "If we can catch him within
four or five billion miles of the star, he won't be too tough to handle.
Be getting plenty of radiations even then, but not quite as much as he
would like to have."

"He'll have to start decelerating pretty soon," Greg declared. "He can't
run the chance of smashing into the planetary system at the speed he's
going. He won't want to waste too much power using his field as a brake,
because he must know by this time that we're after him and he'll want
what power he has to throw at us."

Hours passed. The _Invincible_ crept nearer and nearer, suddenly seemed
to leap ahead as the _Interplanetarian_ began deceleration.

"Keep giving her all you got," Greg urged Russ. "We've got plenty of
power for braking. We can overhaul him and stop in a fraction of the
time he does."

Russ nodded grimly. The distance indicator needle on the mechanical
shadow slipped off rapidly. Greg, leaping from his chair, hung over it,
breathlessly.

"I think," he said, "we better slow down now. If we don't, we'll be
inside the planetary system."

"How far out is Craven?" asked Russ.

"No