ed, and there were shouts of
alarm.

Kenniston and Holk Or burst into the glassite-walled bridge. Bray, the
pilot, turned for a startled moment from his rocket-throttles.

Beyond the pilot, the transparent front wall framed a square of black
space in which bulked the monstrous sphere of the nearby asteroid.

The World with a Thousand Moons! It loomed up only a few hundred miles
away, a big, pale-green sphere encircled by the vast globular swarm of
hundreds on hundreds of gleaming little meteor-satellites.

"Why--what--" stammered the pilot, bewildered.

Kenniston's fist caught his chin, and the man sagged to the floor.

"Bar the door, Holk!" yelled Kenniston as he leaped toward the
rocket-throttles.

"Hell, there's only a catch!" swore the Jovian. He braced his brawny
shoulders against the metal door. "I can hold it a little while."

* * * * *

Kenniston's hands were flashing over the throttles. The _Sunsprite_
was moving at reduced speed toward the meteor-enclosed asteroid.

The cruiser shook to the bursting roar of power, as he opened up all
the tail rockets. It plunged visibly faster toward the deadly swarm
around Vesta, picking up speed by the minute.

Rocking, creaking, quivering to the dangerous rate of acceleration
Kenniston was maintaining, the little ship rushed ahead. But now there
was loud hammering at the bridge-room door.

"Open up or we'll burn that door down!" came Captain Walls' yell.

Kenniston didn't turn. Hunched over the throttles, peering tensely
ahead, he was tautly estimating speed and direction. His eyes searched
frantically for the periodic break in the outer meteors.

There was a muffled crackling and the smell of scorched metal flooded
the bridge-room. A hoarse exclamation of pain came from Holk Or.

"They got my arm through the door, damn them!" cursed the Jovian.
"Hurry, Kenniston!"

Kenniston was driving the _Sunsprite_ full speed toward the whirling
cloud of meteors around the asteroid. He had spotted the break in the
cloud, the periodic opening caused by the gravitational influence of
another nearby asteroid.

It was not a real opening. It was merely a small area in the swarm
where the rushing meteors were not so thick, and where a ship had a
chance to worm through by careful piloting.

Kenniston only remotely heard the struggle that Holk Or was putting up
to hold the door against the hammering crowd outside. His mind was
wholly intent