evolved a super-detonite. We have proved that it will work. It
will carry us beyond the pull of gravitation; it will give us the
freedom of outer space. It is ours and ours alone."

"No," the other corrected slowly, "it is yours. You have paid the
bills and you have paid me. Paid me well."

"I'm paying no more," Harkness told him. "I'm broke, right this
minute. I haven't a dollar--and yet I say now that poor Warrington was
right: this is my lucky day."

* * * * *

He laughed aloud at the bewilderment on the pilot's face.

"Chet," he said slowly, and his voice was pitched to a more serious
tone, "out there is a new world, the Dark Moon. 'Tremendous density,'
they said. That means it can hold an atmosphere of its own. It means
new metals, new wealth. It means a new little world to explore, and
it's out there waiting for us. Waiting for us; we will be the first.
For here is the ship that will take us.

"It isn't mine, Chet; it's ours. And the adventure is ours; yours and
mine, both. We only meant to go a few hundred miles at first, but
here's something big. We may never come back--it's a long chance that
we're taking--but you're in on it, if you want to go...."

He paused. The expression in the eyes of Chet Bullard, master-pilot of
the world, was answer enough. But Chet amplified it with explosive
words.

"Am I in on it?" he demanded. "Try to count me out--just try to do it!
I was game for a trial flight out beyond. And now, with a real
objective to shoot at--a new world--"

His words failed him. Walt Harkness knew that the hand the other
extended was thrust forth blindly; he gripped at it hard, while he
turned to look at the shining ship.

But his inner gaze passed far beyond the gleaming thing of metal, off
into a realm of perpetual night. Out there a new world was waiting--a
Dark Moon!--and there they might find.... But his imagination failed
him there; he could only thrill with the adventure that the unknown
held.

CHAPTER II

_Escape_

Two days, while a cold sun peeped above an icy horizon! Two days of
driving, eager work on the installation of massive motors--yet motors
so light that one man could lift them--then Harkness prepared to
leave.

"Wealth brings care when it comes," he told Chet, "but it leaves
plenty of trouble behind it when it goes. I must get back to New York
and throw what is left of my holdings to the wolves; they must be
howling by this time to f