erally blown into nothingness--no unprotected metal, however
resistant, could exist for a moment in the pathway of those iron-driven
tornadoes of pure energy.

Ship after ship of the Nevians plunged toward the speedster in
desperately suicidal attempts to ram her down, but each met the same
flaming fate before its mass could collide with the ship of the
Terrestrials. Then, from the grouped submarines far below, there reached
up red rods of force, which seized the space-ship and began relentlessly
to draw her down.

"What are they doing that for, Conway? _They_ can't fight us!"

"They don't want to fight us. They want to hold us, but I know what to
do about that, too," and the powerful tractor rods snapped as a plane of
lurid light drove through them. Upward now at the highest permissible
velocity the speedster leaped, and past the few ships remaining above
her she dodged; there was nothing now between her and the freedom of
boundless space.

"You did it, Conway; you did it!" Clio exulted. "Oh, Conway, you're just
simply wonderful!"

"I haven't done it yet," Costigan cautioned her. "The worst is yet to
come. Nerado. He's why they wanted to hold us back, and why I was in
such a hurry to get away. That boat of his is bad medicine, girl, and we
want to put plenty of kilometers behind us before he gets started."

"But do you think he will chase us?"

"_Think_ so? I _know_ so! The mere facts, that we are rare specimens and
that he told us that we were going to stay there all the rest of our
lives, would make him chase us clear to Dustheimer's Nebula. Besides
that, we stepped on their toes pretty heavily before we left. We know
altogether too much now to be let get back to Tellus; and finally,
they'd all die of acute enlargement of the spleen if we get away with
this prize ship of theirs. I hope to tell you they'll chase us!"

He fell silent, devoting his whole attention to his piloting, driving
his craft onward at such velocity that its outer plating held steadily
at the highest point of temperature compatible with safety. Soon they
were out in open space, hurtling toward the sun under the drive of every
possible iota of power, and Costigan took off his armor and turned
toward the helpless body of the captain.

"He looks so ... so ... so _dead_, Conway! Are you really sure that you
can bring him to?"

"Absolutely. Lots of time yet. Just three simple squirts in the right
places will do the trick." He took from a lo