t globe drove on at maximum acceleration,
captain and every control officer alert and at high tension. But in the
Quartermaster's Department, deep down below the generator rooms, no
thought was given to such minor matters as the disappearance of a
_Hyperion_. The inventory did not balance, and two Q. M. privates were
trying, profanely, and without much success, to find the discrepancy.

"Charged cells for model DF Lewistons, none requisitioned, on hand
eighteen thous...." The droning voice broke off short in the middle of a
word and the private stood rigid, in the act of reaching for another
slip, every faculty concentrated upon something, imperceptible to his
companion.

"Come on, Cleve--snap it up!" the second commanded, but was silenced by
a vicious wave of the listener's hand.

"What!" the rigid one exclaimed. "Reveal ourselves! Why, it's ... Oh,
all right.... Oh, that's it.... Uh-huh.... I see.... Yes, I've got it
solid. Maybe I'll see you again some time. If not, so long!"

The inventory sheets fell unheeded from his hand, and his fellow private
stared after him in amazement as he strode over to the desk of the
officer in charge. That officer also stared as the hitherto easy-going
and gold-bricking Cleve saluted briskly, showed him something flat in
the palm of his left hand, and spoke.

"I've just got some of the funniest orders ever put out,
Lieutenant"--his voice was low and intense--"but they came from 'way,
'way up. I'm to join the brass hats in the Center. You'll know about it
directly, I imagine. Cover me up as much as you can, will you?" And he
was gone.

Unchallenged he made his way to the control room, and his curt "urgent
report for the Captain" admitted him there without question. But when he
approached the sacred precincts of the Captain's own and inviolate room,
he was stopped in no uncertain fashion by no less a personage than the
Officer of the Day.

" ... and report yourself under arrest immediately!" the O. D. concluded
his brief but pointed speech.

"You were right in stopping me, of course," the intruder conceded,
unmoved. "I wanted to get in there without giving everything away, if
possible, but it seems that I can't. Well, I've been ordered by Virgil
Samms to report to the Captain, at once. See this? Touch it!" He held
out a flat, insulated disk, cover thrown back to reveal a tiny golden
meteor, at the sight of which the officer's truculent manner altered
markedly.

"I've heard of