o the fiery lake. For a single interminable
instant, he suffered untold agonies.

Then his body quivered, and he felt an unmistakable push against him.
He was moving upward, just as he had hoped. The Gorm was repelling
him, even as it had the ship.

Faster and faster he shot up, chasing the liner. Would he catch up
with it? He strained his eyes. Exultation flooded through him as he
realized that the distance was rapidly lessening between them. The
added impetus of his leap over the Gorm had given him the required
extra fillip of speed. By now, rays were streaking by him.

Soon he was directly underneath. For an instant he had a quick fear
that he might overshoot his mark. But no--he was sliding past the open
air-lock. He threw himself sideways and caught at it. This time his
fingers held.

As he squirmed and wriggled into the lock, they were already careening
into the orange tube through the red swirling clouds. There was no
longer any air. Choking, he managed with numbed fingers to screw his
helmet on. Then, closing the lock, he proceeded into the ship.

Nona was guarding her prisoner vigilantly. Miro sat there, sullen,
defiant. Her glad, welcoming cry filled Grant with a new strange
warmth.

"I was so afraid for you when the ship started and you didn't show
up," she said, "but I didn't dare leave him alone." She indicated
Miro.

"Good girl," he said admiringly. "We'll bind him now and then I want
to show you something."

* * * * *

They stood a little later at the bow quartz port-hole. Down the long
shaft through which they had risen they saw the glaring flame of the
Gorm. As they looked, its regular pulsations turned irregular: it
leaped and splashed as though it was a stormy, choppy sea. Then it
gave one final mighty heave, and the universe seemed to shatter
beneath them. The "walls" of the shaft collapsed about them and they
were enswathed in a raging storm of red clouds.

Nona turned to Grant. "Now, will you explain?"

"Certainly," he grinned boyishly. "I simply reversed the switch that
changes the current of the Gorm. I knew that it would then repel the
liner out into space, as Miro was incautious enough to inform me.

"Then I figured that if instead of direct current, an alternating flow
could be induced, so as to attract and repel in quick succession,
enough of a disturbance would be raised in that highly unstable
mixture to start fireworks. So I rigged up an autom