rse and return to its point of origin. Theoretically, it would
be possible to photograph our own Galaxy as it was thousands of
millennia ago by the light which left it then and has traveled all the
way around the curvature of space.

"But our space has such terrific curvature that it only takes a fraction
of a second for light to make the trip. It has gone all the way around
our little cosmos and come back again.

"If we'd shot at it, we would have really done ourselves in! The ray
beam would go around and hit us from behind!"

"Say, that is a nice proposition!" laughed Fuller. "Then we'll be
accompanied by those ghosts all the way? There goes the spirit 'nine
fathoms deep' which moves the ship--the ghosts that work the sails. This
will be a real _Ancient Mariner_ trip!"

It was like that famed voyage in another way, too. The men found little
to do as they passed on at high speed through the vast realm of space.
The chronometer pointed out the hours with exasperating slowness. The
six hours that were to elapse before the first stop seemed as many days.
They had thought of this trip as a wonderful adventure in itself, but
the soundless continued monotony was depressing. They wandered around,
aimlessly. Wade tried to sleep, but after lying strapped in his bunk for
half an hour, he gave up in despair.

Arcot saw that the strain of doing nothing was not going to be good for
his little crew and decided to see what could be done about it.

He went down to the laboratory and looked for inspiration. He found it.

"Hey! Morey! Wade! Fuller! Come on down here! I've got an idea!" he
called.

They came to find him looking meditatively at the power pack from one of
the flying suits he had designed. He had taken the lux metal case off
and was looking at the neat apparatus that lay within.

"These are equipped for use with the space suits, of course," Morey
pointed out, "and that gives us protection against gases. But I wonder
if we might install protection against mechanical injury--with intent to
damage aforethought! In other words, why not equip these suits with a
small invisibility apparatus? We have it on the ship, but we might need
personal protection, too."

"Great idea," said Wade, "provided you can find room in that case."

"I think we can. We won't need to add anything but a few tuning devices,
really, and they don't take a whale of a lot of power."

Arcot pointed out the places where they could be put; also, he