ould
insist we had only been gone one day, the time we spent out of the
drive. See?"

"I catch," said Fuller. "By the way, shouldn't we take some photographs
of this system? Otherwise, Earth won't get the news for several years
yet."

"Right," agreed Morey. "And we might as well look for the other planets
of the Black Star, too."

They made several plates, continuing their observations until all the
planets had been located, even old Pluto, where crews of Nigran
technicians were obviously at work, building giant structures of lux
metal. The great cities of the Nigrans were beginning to bloom on the
once bleak plains of the planet. The mighty blaze of Sirius had warmed
Pluto, vaporizing its atmosphere and thawing its seas. The planet that
the Black Star had stolen from the Solar System was warmer than it had
been for two billion years.

"Well, that's it," said Arcot when they had finished taking the
necessary photographs. "We can prove we went faster than light easily,
now. The astronomers can take up the work of classifying the planets and
getting details of the orbits when we get back.

"Since the Nigrans now have a sun of their own, there should be no
reason for hostility between our race and theirs. Perhaps we can start
commercial trade with them. Imagine! Commerce over quintillions of miles
of space!"

"And," interrupted Wade, "they can make the trip to this system in less
time than it takes to get to Venus!"

"Meanwhile," said Morey, "let's get on with our own exploration."

They strapped themselves into the control seats once more and Arcot
threw in the molecular drive to take them away from the sun toward which
they had been falling.

When the great, hot disc of Sirius had once more diminished to a tiny
white pinhead of light, Arcot turned the ship until old Sol once more
showed plainly on the cross-hairs of the aiming telescope in the rear
of the vessel.

"Hold on," Arcot cautioned, "here we go again!"

Again he threw the little red tumbler that threw a flood of energy into
the coils. The space about them seemed to shiver and grow dim.

Arcot had thrown more power into the coils this time, so the stars ahead
of them instead of appearing violet were almost invisible; they were
radiating in the ultra-violet now. And the stars behind them, instead of
appearing to be green, had subsided to a dull red glow.

Arcot watched the dull red spark of Sirius become increasingly dimmer.
Then, quite suddenly,