toward interplanetary space. Soon,
the deep blue of the sky had given way to an intense violet, and this
faded to the utter black of space as the ship drew away from the planet
that was its home.

"That lump of dust there is going to look mighty little when we get
back," said Wade softly.

"But," Arcot reminded him, "that little lump of dust is going to pull us
across a distance that our imaginations can't conceive of. And we'll be
darned happy to see that pale globe swinging in space when we get
back--provided, of course, that we do get back."

The ship was straining forward now under the pull of its molecular
motion power units, accelerating at a steady rate, rapidly increasing
the distance between the ship and Earth.

The cosmic ray power generators were still charging the coils,
preventing the use of the space strain drive. Indeed, it would be a good
many hours before they would be far enough from the sun to throw the
ship into hyperspace.

In the meantime, Morey was methodically checking every control as Arcot
called out the readings on the control panel. Everything was working to
perfection. Their every calculation had checked out in practice so far.
But the real test was yet to come.

They were well beyond the orbit of Pluto when they decided they would be
safe in using the space strain drive and throwing the ship into
hyperspace.

Morey was in the hyperspace control room, watching the instruments
there. They were ready!

"Hold on!" called Arcot. "Here we go--if at all!" He reached out to the
control panel before him and touched the green switch that controlled
the molecular motion machines. The big power tubes cut off, and their
acceleration ceased. His fingers pushed a brilliant red switch--there
was a dull, muffled thud as a huge relay snapped shut.

Suddenly, a strange tingling feeling of power ran through them--space
around them was suddenly black. The lights dimmed for an instant as the
titanic current that flowed through the gigantic conductors set up a
terrific magnetic field, reacting with the absorption plates. The power
seemed to climb rapidly to a maximum--then, quite suddenly, it was
gone.

The ship was quiet. No one spoke. The meters, which had flashed over to
their limits, had dropped back to zero once more, except those which
indicated the power stored in the giant coil. The stars that had shone
brilliantly around them in a myriad of colors were gone. The space
around them glowed str