the
other girl felt their senses slowly leave them.

With four unconscious passengers, the space-car hurtled through empty
space, its already inconceivable velocity being augmented every second
by a quantity bringing its velocity near to that of light, driven onward
by the incredible power of the disintegrating copper bar.

* * * * *

Seaton had gone only a short distance from his sweetheart's home when
over the purring of his engine he thought he heard Dorothy's voice
raised in a scream. He did not wait to make sure, but whirled his
machine about and the purring changed instantly to a staccato roar as he
threw open the throttle and advanced the spark. Gravel flew from beneath
his skidding wheels as he negotiated the turn into the Vaneman grounds
at suicidal speed. But with all his haste he arrived upon the scene just
in time to see the door of the space-car close. Before he could reach it
the vessel disappeared, with nothing to mark its departure save a
violent whirl of grass and sod, uprooted and carried far into the air by
the vacuum of its wake. To the excited tennis-players and the screaming
mother of the abducted girl it seemed as though the great metal ball had
vanished utterly--only Seaton, knowing what to expect, saw the line it
made in the air and saw for an instant a minute dot in the sky before it
disappeared.

Interrupting the clamor of the young people, each of whom was trying to
tell him what had happened, he spoke to Mrs. Vaneman.

"Mother, Dottie's all right," he said rapidly but gently. "Steel's got
her, but they won't keep her long. Don't worry, we'll get her. It may
take a week or it may take a year, but we'll bring her back," and
leaping upon his motorcycle, he shattered all the speed laws on his way
to Crane's house.

"Mart!" he yelled, rushing into the shop, "they've got Dottie, in a bus
made from our plans. Let's go!" as he started on a run for the testing
shed.

"Wait a minute!" crisply shouted Crane. "Don't go off half-cocked. What
is your plan?"

"Plan, hell!" barked the enraged chemist. "Chase 'em!"

"Which way did they go, and when?"

"Straight up, full power, twenty minutes ago."

"Too long ago. Straight up has changed its direction several degrees
since then. They may have covered a million miles, or they may have come
back and landed next door. Sit down and think--we need all your brains
now."

Regaining his self-possession as the wisdom of