ere_ you are, you cantankerous little fabrication of nothings!"
Belle said aloud, in a low, throaty, gloating voice. "Take _that_--and
_that_! And now behave yourself. If you don't, mama spank--but _good_!"
Then, breaking connection, "Thanks a million, Clee; you're tall, solid
gold. Do you want to run some more tests, to see which of us is the
intergalactic transporter?"

"Not unless you do."

"Who, me? I'll be tickled to death not to; just like I'd swallowed an
ostrich feather. Back to Tellus, then?"

"Tellus, here we come," Garlock said. "Jim, what are the Tellurian
figures for exactly five hundred miles up?"

"I'll punch 'em--got 'em in my head." James did so. "Shall Brownie and I
set our blocks?"

"No," Belle said. "Nothing can interfere with us now."

"Ready." Garlock sat down in the pilot's seat. "Cluster 'round, chum."

* * *

Belle leaned against the back of the chair and put both arms around
Garlock's neck. "I'm clustered."

"The spot we're shooting at is exactly over the exact center of the
middle blast-pit at Port Gunther. In sync?"

"To a skillionth of a whillionth of a microphase. I'm _exactly_ on and
locked. Shoot."

"Now, you sheet-iron bucket of nuts and bolts, _jump_!" and Garlock
snapped the red switch.

Earth lay beneath them. So did Port Gunther.

"Hu-u-u-uh!" Garlock's huge sigh held much more of relief than of
triumph.

"They did it! We're home!" Lola shrieked; and, breaking into unashamed
and unrestrained tears, went into her husband's extended arms.

"Cry ahead, sweet. I'd bawl myself if Garlock wasn't looking. Maybe I
will, anyway," James said. Then, extending his right arm to Garlock and
to Belle, "I was scared to death you couldn't make it except by back
tracking. Good going, you two Primes," but his thoughts said vastly more
than his words.

Belle's eyes, too, were wet; Garlock's own were not quite dry.

"You weren't as sure as you looked, then, that we could do it the hard
way," Belle said. "All inside, I was one quivering mass of jelly."

"Afterward, you mean. You were solid as Gibraltar when I fired the
charge. You're the kind of woman a man wants with him when the going's
tough. Slide around here a little, so I can get hold of you."

Garlock released Belle--finally--and turned to the pilot, who was just
pulling a data-sheet from Compy the Computer. "How far did we miss
target, Jim?"

* * *

James held up h