d another, and another; boring on
ruthlessly toward the smaller sphere. Fighting simultaneously three
torpedos and the giant globe, the enemy began dodging, darting hither
and thither with a stupendous acceleration; but the tiny pursuers could
not be shaken off. At every dodge and turn, steering rockets burst into
furious activity and the projectiles rushed ever nearer. Knowing that
she had at last encountered a superior force, the sphere turned in
mad flight; but, prodigious as was her acceleration, the torpedoes
were faster and all three of them struck her at once. There ensued
an explosion veritably space-racking in its intensity; a flash of
incandescent brilliance that seemed to fill all space, subsiding into
a vast volume of tenuous gas which, feebly glowing, flowed about and
attached itself to Cantrell's Comet. And in the space where had been
the enemy sphere, there was nothing.

A slow-creeping pale blue rod of tangible force reached out from the
great sphere, touched the wreckage of the _Forlorn Hope_, and pulled;
gently, but with enormous power.

"Tractor beams again!" exclaimed Stevens, still at the plate.
"Everybody's got 'em but us, it seems."

"And we can't fight a bit any more, can we?"

"Not a chance--bows and arrows wouldn't do us much good. However, we may
not need 'em. Since they fought that other crew, and haven't blown us
up, they aren't active enemies of ours, and may be friendly. I haven't
any idea who or what they are, since even our communicator ray can't get
through that mirror, but it looks as though our best bet is to act
peaceable and see if we can't talk to them in some way. Right?"

"Right." They stepped out into the airlock, from which they saw that
the great sphere had halted only a few yards from them, and that an
indistinct figure stood in an open door, waving to them an unmistakable
invitation to enter the strange vessel.

"Shall we, Steve?"

"Might as well. They've got us foul, and can take us if they want us.
Anyway, we'll need at least a week to fix us up any kind of driving
power, so we can't run--and we probably couldn't get away from those
folks if we had all our power. They haven't blown us up, and they could
have done it easily enough. Besides, they act friendly, so we'd better
meet them half way. Dive!"

Floating toward the open doorway, they were met by another rod of force,
brought gently into the airlock, and supported upright beside the being
who had invited them