d nearer and there was
no hint of familiarity in their arrangement. Like gems thrown upon
darkness they shone in multi-colored beauty upon the daring wanderers,
who stood in their car as easily as though they were upon their parent
Earth, and gazed upon a sight never before seen by eye of man nor
pictured in his imaginings.

Through the daze of their wonder, a thought smote Seaton like a blow
from a fist. His eyes leaped to the instrument board and he exclaimed:

"Look there, Mart! We're heading almost directly away from the Earth,
and we must be making billions of miles per second. After we lost
consciousness, the attraction of that big dud back there would swing us
around, of course, but the bar should have stayed pointed somewhere near
the Earth, as I left it. Do you suppose it could have shifted the
gyroscopes?"

"It not only could have, it did," replied Crane, turning the bar until
it again pointed parallel with the object-compass which bore upon the
Earth. "Look at the board. The angle has been changed through nearly
half a circumference. We couldn't carry gyroscopes heavy enough to
counteract that force."

"But they were heavier there--Oh, sure, you're right. It's mass, not
weight, that counts. But we sure are in one fine, large jam now. Instead
of being half-way back to the Earth we're--where are we, anyway?"

They made a reading on an object-compass focused upon the Earth.
Seaton's face lengthened as seconds passed. When it had come to rest,
both men calculated the distance.

"What d'you make it, Mart? I'm afraid to tell you my result."

"Forty-six point twenty-seven light-centuries," replied Crane, calmly.
"Right?"

"Right, and the time was 11:32 P. M. of Thursday, by the chronometer
there. We'll time it again after a while and see how fast we're
traveling. It's a good thing you built the ship's chronometers to stand
any kind of stress. My watch is a total loss. Yours is, too?"

"All of our watches must be broken. We will have to repair them as soon
as we get time."

"Well, let's eat next! No human being can stand my aching void much
longer. How about you, Dot?"

"Yes, for Cat's sake, let's get busy!" she mimicked him gaily. "Doctor
DuQuesne's had dinner ready for ages, and we're all dying by inches of
hunger."

* * * * *

The wanderers, battered, bruised, and sore, seated themselves at a
folding table, Seaton keeping a watchful eye upon the bar and upon the
cou