moon to Earth was a dubious one; but the gift of a
possibly living planet-colony to mankind might be the solution of the
overcrowded conditions of the terrestial sphere!

"Speed, three thousand miles an hour," computed Wichter. "Distance to
Zeud, nine hundred and eighty miles. If we don't strike a few atoms of
hydrogen or something soon we're going to drill this nearest crater a
little deeper!"

Joyce nodded grimly. At two thousand miles from Earth there had still
been enough hydrogen traces in the ether to give purchase to the
explosions of their water-motor. At six hundred miles from the moon
they had run into a sparse gaseous belt that had enabled them to
change direction and slow their speed. They had hoped to find hydrogen
at a thousand or twelve hundred miles from Zeud.

"Eight hundred and thirty miles," commented Wichter, his slender,
bent body tensed. "Eight hundred miles--ah!"

A thrumming sound came to their ears as the shell quivered,
imperceptibly almost, but unmistakeably, at the touch of some faint
resistance outside in space.

"We've struck it, Joyce. And it's much denser than the moon's, even as
we'd hoped. There'll be life on Zeud, my boy, unless I'm vastly
mistaken. You'd better look to the motor now."

* * * * *

Joyce went to the water-motor. This was a curious, but extremely
simple affair. There was a glass box, ribbed with polished steel,
about the size and shape of a cigar box, which was full of water.
Leading away from this, to the bow and stern of the shell, were two
small pipes. The pipes were greatly thickened for a period of three
feet or so, directly under the little tank, and were braced by
bed-plates so heavy as to look all out of proportion. Around the
thickened parts of the pipes were coils of heavy, insulated copper
wire. There were no valves nor cylinders, no revolving parts: that was
all there was to the "motor."

Joyce didn't yet understand the device. The water dripped from the
tank, drop by drop, to be abruptly disintegrated, made into an
explosive, by being subjected to a powerful magnetic field induced in
the coils by a generator in the bow of the shell. As each drop of
water passed into the pipes, and was instantaneously broken up, there
was a violent but controlled explosion--and the shell was kicked
another hundred miles ahead on its journey. That was all Joyce knew
about it.

He threw the bow switch. There was a soft shock as the mot