he stars shone in
solemn splendor around him. But he had eyes for only one thing, the
shining car that was rising with more than equal speed behind him. He
knew he must be climbing over two thousand miles an hour, yet the
tracker came ever closer. Just out of sighting range for the machine gun
now ... in a moment ... but, she was faltering!

The men in the machine behind sat white-lipped, tense, as the whirling
shocks of sudden turns at terrific speed twisted the gyroscopic seats
around like peas in a rolling ball. Up, down, left, right, the darting
machine ahead was twisting with unbelievable speed. Then suddenly the
nose was pointed for the zenith again, and with a great column of flame
shooting out behind him, he was heading straight toward space!

"If he gets there, I lose him, Morey!" said Arcot. The terrific
acceleration of the climb seemed to press them to their seats with a
deadly weight. It was labor to talk--but still the car ahead shot
on--slowly they seemed to be overhauling him. Now that the velocities
were perforce lowered by the effects of gravity, and the air resistance
of the atmosphere was well nigh gone, only the acceleration that the
human body could stand was considered. The man ahead was pushing his
plane ahead with an acceleration that would have killed many men!

Slowly the acceleration of the machine was falling. Arcot pushed the
control over to the last ampere, and felt the slight surge, as greater
power rushed through the coils momentarily. Soon this was gone too, as
the generator behind faltered. The driving power of the atmospheric heat
was gone. More than sixty miles below them they could see the Earth as a
greenish brown surface, slightly convex, and far to the east they could
distinguish a silvery line of water! But they had no eyes but for the
column of shooting flame that represented the fleeing raider! Out in
airless space now, he was safe from them. They could not follow. Arcot
turned the plane once more, parallel to the Earth, watching the plane
above through the roof window. Slowly the machine sank to the fifty-mile
level, where there was just sufficient air to maintain it in efficient
operation.

"Well, he beat us! But there is only one thing for us to do. He must
hang there on his rockets till we leave, and we can hang here
indefinitely, if we can only keep this cabin decently warm. He has no
air to cool him, and he has the sun to warm him. The only thing that is
worrying him