up
space-cradles around the ship herself it'll take a long time--months,
probably. Haven't got a spare planet on hand, have you?"

"We might have, at that," Rodebush made surprising answer. "A couple of
seconds before we engaged we were heading toward a sun with at least two
planets. I was just getting ready to dodge them when we cut the
neutralizers, so they should be fairly close somewhere--yes, there's the
sun, right over there. Rather pale and small; but it's close,
comparatively speaking. We'll go back up into the control room and find
out about the planets."

The strange sun was found to have three large and easily located
children, and observation showed that the crippled space-ship could
reach the nearest of these in about five days. Power was therefore fed
to the driving projectors, and each scientist, electrician, and mechanic
bent to the task of repairing the ruined generators; rebuilding them to
handle any load which the converters could possibly put upon them. For
two days the _Boise_ drove on; then her acceleration was reversed, and
finally a landing was effected upon the forbidding, rocky soil of the
strange world.

It was larger than the earth, and of a somewhat stronger gravitation.
Although its climate was bitterly cold, even in its short daytime, it
supported a luxuriant but outlandish vegetation. Its atmosphere, while
rich enough in oxygen and not really poisonous, was so rank with
indescribably fetid vapors as to be scarcely breathable.

But these things bothered the engineers not at all. Paying no attention
to temperature or to scenery and without waiting for chemical analysis
of the air, the space-suited mechanics leaped to their tasks; and in
only a little more time than had been mentioned by the chief engineer
the hull and giant frame of the super-ship were as staunch as of yore.

"All right, Skipper!" came finally the welcome word. "You might try her
out with a fast hop around this world before you shove off in earnest."

Under the fierce blast of her projectors the vessel leaped ahead, and
time after time, as Rodebush hurled her mass upon tractor beam or
pressor, the engineers sought in vain for any sign of weakness. The
strange planet half girdled and the severest tests passed flawlessly,
Rodebush reached for his neutralizer switches. Reached and paused,
dumfounded, for a brilliant purple light had sprung into being upon his
panel and a bell rang out insistently.

"What the blue blaz