d. Normally, you know, the bottom of the car
follows directly behind the bar. It doesn't mean much yet except that we
are being drawn away from our straight line, but if the attraction gets
much stronger it may make us miss our solar system completely. I have
been looking for the star in question, but can't see it yet. We'll
probably pull away from it very shortly."

* * * * *

He threw on the power, and for some time watched the bar anxiously,
expecting to see it swing back into the vertical, but the angle
continually increased. He again reduced the current and searched the
heavens for the troublesome body.

"Do you see it yet?" asked Dorothy with concern.

"No, there's apparently nothing near enough to account for all this
deflection."

He took out a pair of large night-glasses and peered through them for
several minutes.

"Good God! It's a dead sun, and we're nearly onto it! It looks as large
as our moon!"

Springing to the board, he whirled the bar into the vertical. He took
down a strange instrument, went to the bottom window, and measured the
apparent size of the dark star. Then, after cautioning the rest of the
party to sit tight, he advanced the lever farther than it had been
before. After half an hour he again slackened the pace and made another
observation, finding to his astonishment that the dark mass had almost
doubled its apparent size! Dorothy, noting his expression, was about to
speak, but he forestalled her.

"We lost ground, instead of gaining, that spurt," he remarked, as he
hastened to his post. "It must be inconceivably large, to exert such an
enormous attractive force at this distance. We'll have to put on full
power. Hang onto yourselves as best you can."

He then pushed the lever out to its last notch and left it there until
the bar was nearly gone, only to find that the faint disk of the monster
globe was even larger than before, being now visible to the unaided eye.
Revived, the three others saw it plainly--a great dim circle, visible as
is the dark portion of the new moon--and, the power shut off, they felt
themselves falling toward it with sickening speed. Perkins screamed with
mad fear and flung himself grovelling upon the floor. Margaret, her
nerves still unstrung, clutched at her heart with both hands. Dorothy,
though her eyes looked like great black holes in her white face, looked
DuQuesne in the eye steadily.

"This is the end, then?"

"Not y