ottles, firing desperate quick bursts of the tail
rocket-tubes to bring them out of the spin in which they were falling.

The brake-rockets in the bow were gone. The ship was crippled, almost
impossible to handle. And the dark green jungles of Vesta's surface
were rushing upward with appalling speed.

Kenniston's frantic efforts brought the _Sunsprite_ out of the spin.
By firing the lateral rockets, he kept it falling tail-downward.

"We're goners!" yelled someone in the stricken ship. "We're going to
crash!"

Air was screaming outside the plummeting ship. Kenniston, his hands
superhumanly tense on the throttles, mechanically estimated their
distance from the uprushing green jungles.

He glimpsed a little black lake in the jungle, and near it the big
circle of an electrified stockade. He recognized it--John Dark's
camp!

Then, a thousand feet above the jungle, Kenniston's hands jerked open
the throttles. The tail rockets spouted fire downward.

Sickening shock of the sudden check almost hurled him away from the
controls. His hands jabbed the throttles in and out with lightning
rapidity, checking their further fall with one quick burst after
another.

A sound of rending branches--a staggering sidewise shock that flung
him from his feet. A jarring thump, then silence. They had landed.

CHAPTER IV

The Vestans

Kenniston picked himself up groggily. The others in the bridge had
been thrown against walls or floor by the shock, but seemed no more
than bruised. Holk Or was nursing his burned arm. But Hugh Murdock,
staggering in a corner, still held his atom-pistol trained on
Kenniston and the Jovian.

"My God, what a landing!" exclaimed Captain Walls, his plump face
still white. "I thought we were done for."

"Maybe we still are," Murdock said grimly. He said savagely to
Kenniston, "You think you've won, don't you? Because you've managed to
crash us on this asteroid where your pirate boss is waiting?"

"Listen, Murdock--," Kenniston began desperately.

"Keep your hands up or I'll kill you both!" blazed Murdock. "March
down to the main cabin."

Kenniston and the Jovian obeyed. The _Sunsprite_ was lying sharply
canted on its side, and it was difficult to scramble down through the
tilted passageways and decks to the big main cabin.

The cabin was a scene of confusion, for it was impossible to stand
upright on its tilted floor. Young Arthur Lanning had been stunned,
and Gloria Loring and the scared blond