e out in ordinary dark space, with its star-studded blackness.

"What was the matter with my calculations?" Morey wanted to know.

"Oh, nothing much," Arcot said casually. "You were only about thirty
thousand light years off. We landed right in the middle of the central
gas cloud, and we were plowing through it at a relative velocity of
around sixteen thousand miles per second! No wonder we got hot!

"We're lucky we didn't come near any stars in the process; if we had, we
could have had to recharge the coil."

"It's a wonder we didn't burn up at that velocity," said Fuller.

"The gas wasn't dense enough," Arcot explained. "That gas is a better
vacuum than the best pump could give you on Earth; there are fewer
molecules per cubic inch than there are in a radio tube.

"But now that we're out of that, let's see if we can find a planet. No
need to take photographs going in; if we want to find the star again, we
can take photos as we leave. If we don't want to find it, we would just
waste film.

"I'll leave it to Morey to find the star we want."

Morey set to work at once with the telescope; trying to find the nearest
star of spectral type G-0, as had been agreed upon. He also wanted to
find one of the same magnitude, or brilliance. At last, after
investigating several such suns, he discovered one which seemed to
fulfill all his wishes. The ship was turned, and they started toward the
adventure they had really hoped to find.

As they rushed through space, the distorted stars shining vividly before
them, they saw the one which was their goal. A bright, slowly changing
violet point on the cross-hairs of the aiming telescope.

"How far is it?" asked Arcot.

"About thirty light centuries," replied Morey, watching the star
eagerly.

They drove on in silence. Then, suddenly, Morey cried out: "Look! It's
gone!"

"What happened?" asked Arcot in surprise.

Morey rubbed his chin in thought. "The star suddenly flared brightly for
an instant, then disappeared. Evidently, it was a G-0 giant which had
burned up most of the hydrogen that stars normally use for fuel. When
that happens, a star begins to collapse, increasing in brilliance due to
the heat generated by the gas falling toward the center of the star.

"Then other nuclear reactions begin to take place, and, due to the
increased transparency of the star, a supernova is produced. The star
blows away most of its gaseous envelope, leaving only the superdense
core. In