ous. Maybe I'd better see that he meets with an accident."

"No, let him alone," warned Kenniston. "If anything happened to him
now, the others would want to turn back. And we're almost to Vesta
now."

But worry remained as a shadow in the back of Kenniston's own mind. It
still oppressed him hours later when the arbitrary ship's-time had
brought the 'night.' Sitting down in the luxurious passenger-cabin
over highballs with the others, he wondered where Hugh Murdock was.

The rest of Gloria's party were all here, listening with fascinated
interest to Holk Or's colorful yarns of adventures on the wild
asteroids. But Murdock was missing. Kenniston wondered worriedly if
the fellow was looking over that equipment in the hold again.

* * * * *

A young Earth space-man--one of the _Sunsprite's_ small crew--came
into the cabin and approached Kenniston.

"Captain Walls' compliments, sir, and would you come up to the bridge?
He'd like your advice about the course again."

"I'll go with you," Gloria said as Kenniston rose. "I like it up in
the bridge best of any place on the ship."

As they climbed past the little telaudio transmitter-room, they saw
Hugh Murdock standing in there by the operator. He smiled at Gloria.

"I've been trying to get some messages through to Earth, but it seems
we're almost out of range," he said ruefully.

"Can't you ever forget business, Hugh?" the girl said exasperatedly.
"You're about as adventurous as a fat radium-broker of fifty."

Kenniston, however, felt relieved that Murdock had apparently
forgotten about the oddness of the equipment below. His spirits were
lighter when they entered the glassite-enclosed bridge.

Captain Walls turned from where he stood beside Bray, the chief pilot.
The plump, cheerful master touched his cap to Gloria Loring.

"Sorry to bother you again, Mr. Kenniston," he apologized. "But we're
getting pretty near Vesta, and you know this devilish region of space
better than I do. The charts are so vague they're useless."

Kenniston glanced at the instrument-panel with a practiced eye and
then squinted at the void ahead. The _Sunsprite_ was now throbbing
steadily through a starry immensity whose hosts of glittering points
of light would have made a bewildering panorama to laymen's eyes.

They seemed near none of those blazing sparks. Yet every few minutes,
red lights blinked and buzzers sounded on the instrument panel. At
each such