too late now to stop him. They had not noticed his absence,
and if they had, they would not delay the launching for him. He had
taken that fact into consideration.

And now that the moment was close to completion, he felt a glowing sense
of triumph within him. He would now show those fools, and especially
Mathieson. He would prove conclusively that cosmic rays were what he had
said they were--a source of the energy of life, a fountain from which
youth and vitality would pour, making his body immortal. He would go
down in history as one of the greats of science. A man who had risked
his life to prove his theory. A man who would be the first to achieve
the goal of the ages, the dream of the philosophers, eternal life.

The triumph would be his. _All_ his!

And the rocket tubes exploded into sound.

Gaddon tensed in the darkness, gripping the safety straps he had
attached to himself. Beside him he felt the cat let out a frightened
mewing sound as the roar of the exploding rocket power grew. He felt the
furry body rubbing against his side, seeking sanctuary against this
dread sound.

And then the rocket trembled with sudden movement.

It was slow at first, but then it grew faster, and Gaddon felt a faint
intensity of fear in his temples at the shuddering power of that
movement.

And then he felt the blood draining from his head, making him faint with
dizziness as the rocket accelerated suddenly into a terrible burst of
speed.

He could feel it moving swiftly through the atmosphere now, feel the
tortured rush of air that whipped against the sides of the projectile in
a moaning dirge that mingled with the roar of the exploding rocket fuel.

And as the seconds passed, he became accustomed somewhat to the
increasing velocity of the projectile, and the dizziness passed from his
head. Then he became aware of the trembling body of the cat beside him
and a soft laughter rose in his throat.

But it died stillborn as the roar of the rockets grew to a thundering
hiss now in his ears.

And he felt the cool sweetness of the automatically released oxygen fill
the chamber about him and he drank it into his lungs hungrily.

With each second now, he knew the projectile was racing higher into the
rarefied atmosphere, heading steadily out to where the air of earth
would be almost non-existent.

And a grim smile crossed his face in the darkness, for he knew that
shortly the rocket would enter the outermost layers and the cosmi