even before he saw the onrushing death.
Then he leaped to a lookout, and, an instant later, sprang at Chet
calmly fingering the control.

"Fool!" he screamed, "you would kill us all? Turn away from it! Away
from it!"

He threw himself in a frenzy upon the pilot. The detonite pistol was
still in his hand. "Quick!" he shouted. "Turn us!"

Harkness moved swiftly, but the scientist, Kreiss, was nearer; it was he
who smashed the gun-hand down with a quick blow and snatched at the
weapon.

Schwartzmann was beside himself with rage. "You, too?" he demanded.
"Giff it me--traitor!"

* * * * *

But the tall man stood uncompromisingly erect. "Never," he said, "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. per hour 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