-I don't like the
possibility of having that gang of pirates after us, and nothing to
fight back with except thought-waves."

"Right. We will do both those things. But we should make the power-plant
big enough to avert any possible contingency--say four hundred
pounds--and we should have everything in duplicate, from power-plant to
push-buttons."

"I don't think that's necessary, Mart. Don't you think that's carrying
caution to extremes?"

"Possibly--but I would rather be a live coward than a dead hero,
wouldn't you?"

"You chirped it, old scout, I sure would. I never did like the looks of
that old guy with the scythe, and I would hate to let DuQuesne feel that
he had slipped something over on me at my own game. Besides, I've
developed a lot of caution myself, lately. Double she is, with a skin of
four-foot Norwegian armor. Let's get busy!"

* * * * *

They made the necessary alteration in the plans, and in a few days work
was begun upon the huge steel shell in the little mountain steel-plant.
The work was done under the constant supervision of the great
MacDougall, by men who had been in his employ for years and who were
all above suspicion. While it was being built Seaton and Crane employed
a force of men and went ahead with the construction of the space-car in
the testing shed. While they did not openly slight the work nearly all
their time was spent in the house, perfecting the many essential things
which were to go into the real Skylark. There was the attractor, for
which they had to perfect a special sighting apparatus so that it could
act in any direction, and yet would not focus upon the ship itself nor
anything it contained. There were many other things.

It was in this work that the strikingly different temperaments and
abilities of the two men were most clearly revealed. Seaton strode up
and down the room, puffing great volumes of smoke from his hot and
reeking briar, suggesting methods and ideas, his keen mind finding the
way over, around, or through the apparently insuperable obstacles which
beset their path. Crane, seated calmly at the drafting-table,
occasionally inhaling a mouthful of smoke from one of his specially-made
cigarettes, mercilessly tore Seaton's suggestions to shreds--pointing
out their weaknesses, proving his points with his cold, incisive
reasoning and his slide-rule calculations of factors, stresses, and
strains. Seaton in turn would find a remedy f