n the _Prometheus_ rocked from the impact of a blaster-beam;
and though the Kraskows could not see the effect of the weapon, they
knew that there were glowing spots on their ship's tough hull. If the
Patrol boats could bear down with their beams on a particular area for
a few seconds, a mighty episode could end violently before it had a
chance to start.

Alice's small hands were on the complicated aiming and firing
mechanism of the heavy blaster, mounted externally on the hull of the
_Prometheus_.

"I'll keep the cops at a distance with a few near-misses," she said.
"Maybe they aren't too anxious to take the chance of setting off the
Big Pill, anyway. Let me worry about them, Bert. Just do what you've
got to do...."

They had shut off their radio. There was no need to listen to the
somewhat hysterical repetitions of what had come through before.

Every few moments there was a burst of humming sound as Alice fired.
Bert put additional power into the rockets to surpass fixed orbital
speed; but he held the ship to a tight curve around Titan. It was best
to cover distance as quickly as possible. In his speeding course, he
passed almost over the camp. But his purpose was to bomb a point at
antipodes from it, halfway around this Saturnian moon.

* * * * *

Under full acceleration, the _Prometheus_ was soon nearing this
destination. To allow for the Big Pill's forward motion, imparted to
it by the ship's velocity even after release, he pressed the lever
that opened the bomb-bay doors, and then jabbed the single button that
controlled both release, and the firing of the gigantic missile's own
propulsive jets. Without those jets, considering the centrifugal force
of its vast velocity in a circular path around Titan, much
overbalancing the feebler gravitational pull of the moon, it could not
have started its fall at all. It needed jets to drive it down.

Bert jabbed the button with his eyes closed since he had no precise
target to hit. His teeth were gritted.

With the sudden loss of mass, the ship lurched. Bert had to struggle
for a moment to adjust the angle of its flaming stern-jets, and bring
it back on course. In another few seconds he cut the stern-jets out
entirely, and opened the fore-nozzles wide to check excess speed, and
reestablish the _Prometheus_ in a stable orbit around Titan. One that
could last forever without additional thrust.

"Well, the Big Pill is on its way--for bet