ed and fifty mile high perch! He will establish an
orbit! He has so much centrifugal force already that he has very little
weight. We are staying right beneath him, so we don't have much either.
Well, there he goes in a last spurt. We are falling behind pretty
fast--there we are catching up now--no--we are just holding parallel!
He's done it! Look!"

Arcot pulled out his watch and let go of it. It floated motionless in
the air for a moment, then slowly drifted back toward the rear of the
room. "I am using a bit of acceleration--a bit more than we need to
maintain our speed. We are up high enough to make the air resistance
almost nothing, even at this velocity, but we still require some power.
I don't know--"

There was a low buzz, repeated twice. Instantly Morey turned the dials
of the radio receiving set--again the call signal sounded. In a moment a
voice came in--low, but distinct. The power seemed fading rapidly.

"I'm Wade--the Pirate--help if you can. Can you get outside the
atmosphere? Exceed orbital speed and fall out? Am in an orbit and can't
get out. Fuel reserve gage stuck, and used all my rockets. No more
power. Can not slow down and fall. I am running out of compressed air
and the generator for this set is going--will take animation suspending
gas--will you be able to reach me before entering night?"

"Quick, Morey--answer that we will."

"We will try, Pirate--think we can make it!"

"O.K.--power about gone--"

The last of his power had failed! The pirate was marooned in space! They
had seen his rockets go out, leaving the exhaust tube glowing for a
moment before it, too, was dark, and only the sun shining on the silvery
ship made it visible.

"We have to hurry if we want to do anything before he reaches night!
Radio the San Francisco fields that we will be coming in soon, and we
need a large electro-magnet--one designed to work on about 500 volts
D.C., and some good sized storage cells; how many will have to be
decided later, depending on the room we will have for them. I'll start
decelerating now so we can make the turn and circle back. We are
somewhere west of Hawaii, I believe, but we ought to be able to do the
trick if we use all the power we can."

Morey at once set to work with the radio set to raise San Francisco
airport. He was soon in communication with them, and told them that he
would be there in about an hour. They promised all the necessary
materials; also that they would get ready t