replaced
some of the old induction coils with one of his new storage cells and
got far higher efficiency from the tubes.

But principally, it was something to do.

Indeed, it was so thoroughly something to do that the six hours had
almost elapsed before they realized it. In a very short time, they
returned again to the control room and strapped themselves in.

Arcot reached toward the little red switch that controlled the titanic
energies of the huge coil below and pulled it back a quarter of the way.

"There go the ghosts!" he said. The images had quickly disappeared,
seemingly leaping away from them at terrific speed as the space in which
the ship was enclosed opened out more and more and the curvature
decreased. They were further away from themselves!

Easing back a quarter at a time, to prevent sparks again flying about in
the atmosphere of the ship, Arcot cut the power to zero, and the ship
was standing still once more.

They hurriedly dived to the observatory and looked eagerly out the
window.

Far, far behind them, floating in the marvelous, soft, utter blackness
of space, was a shining disc made up of myriads of glowing points. And
it didn't seem to be a huge thing at a great distance, but simply a
small glowing object a few feet outside the window.

So perfectly clear was their view through the lux metal wall and the
black, empty space that all sense of distance was lost. It seemed more a
miniature model of their universe--a tiny thing that floated close
behind them, unwavering, shining with a faint light, a heatless
illumination that made everything in the darkened observatory glow very
faintly. It was the light of three hundred million suns seen at a
distance of three million million million miles! And it seemed small
because there was nothing with which to compare it.

It was an amazingly beautiful thing, that tiny floating disc of light.

Morey floated over to the cameras and began to take pictures.

"I'd like to take a color shot of that," he said a few minutes later,
"but that would require a direct shot through the reflector telescope
and a time exposure. And I can't do that; the ship is moving."

"Not enough to make any difference," Arcot contradicted. "We're moving
away from it in a straight line, and that thing is three quintillion
miles away. We're not moving fast enough to cause any measurable
contraction in a time exposure. As for having a steady platform, this
ship weighs a quarter