someone had drawn layer after
layer of gauze between the boy and the marmoset, but he understood that
Prince Machiavelli was still alive, and in far better shape than he was.

The vibrating, paralyzing scream of the rocket suddenly cut off. Silence
flooded in.

End of burning for stage three!

Pegasus had altered course slightly, in response to its pre-set
mechanisms. Now it was on a course that would take it to the maximum
point into space, but at the same time would keep it over Scarlet Lake.
For a few minutes more it would coast on its momentum, slowing
constantly until it reached maximum altitude. Then, briefly, it would
hesitate.

Momentum used up, earth's gravity would again assume control. The rocket
would slip back, tail first, slowly, slowly, then faster and faster,
beginning the long, final plunge to the ground.

CHAPTER XVIII

Out of Control!

Rick came back to painful consciousness. He realized that the
acceleration was at an end. The torture of G forces was over, and
whatever happened from here on wouldn't compare with the past few
minutes.

He tried to sit up, and strained muscles reacted. He groaned with pain
and lay down again. Suddenly he realized he was no longer on the floor!

He hung in the air, as though by some weird magic, and tried to figure
out what had happened to him. Of course he was weightless! The rocket
was now in free flight, its inertia counteracting gravitational pull. He
would continue weightless until gravity took over again.

[Illustration: _Rick hung in the air, as though suspended by some weird
magic_]

It was comfortable, after the racking acceleration. He could have gone
to sleep easily, and almost did. Then the spacemonk chirruped at him
uneasily. The marmoset was feeling the odd weightlessness, too.

The chirrup brought Rick back to his senses. He wasn't in some marvelous
bed, he was in space! But natural forces still bound him to earth, and
mother earth would reclaim him with crushing, final impact within a very
few minutes.

He tasted blood. The Earthman had done this! His death would be on the
Earthman's head. He knew the drone control couldn't function, but he
didn't know why. He was only sure of one thing. The Earthman was a
member of the electronics department. Only someone who knew the drone
system intimately could have bypassed the control by wiring it so the
board showed green even when the control wasn't working.

Rising anger stirred him. W