ntainer, and parachute, and let's
get as far away from this plane as we can. Who knows? When the end comes
we may get a break at that!"

They ran until the bulge of the inner globe all but hid the plane from
them. They could see only the top wing. They did not go farther because
they wished to make sure that the enemy did not dislodge the plane and
nullify all their work.

"They won't be able to," said Jeter, "for that motor is pulling against
the wheels and holding them so tight against the side of that door that
a hundred men couldn't budge the plane. But we can't take chances."

Quickly the partners slipped into their suits, adjusted their oxygen
tanks and parachutes. Then Jeter slipped back the elastic sleeve of his
suit and motioned Eyer to do the same. The manacles were brought into
view again. They looked at each other. Eyer grinned and held out his
left hand. Jeter snapped the second cuff to Eyer's wrist.

The act was significant.

Whatever happened to them, would happen to both in equal measure. It was
a gesture which needed no words. If they were slain when their
friends--if their theory was correct--finally saw the space ship, they
would die together. If by some miracle they were hurled into outer space
and lived to use their parachutes--well, the discomfort was a small
price to pay to stay together.

Now they devoted all their attention to their own situation. Four planes
still spun warily above the space ship. Wang Li was patently trying with
all his might to get all four of them before the Jeter-Eyer plane, by
shattering the rind, disclosed the inner core to the bombs of the
remaining planes.

"Lucian!" said the fingers of Eyer. "Can you tell whether anything is
happening to the rind?"

Jeter hesitated for a long time. There was a distinct and almost
nauseating vibration throughout all the space ship. And was there not
something happening to the rind over a wide area, directly above the
Jeter-Eyer plane?

They could fancy the snapping of ice on a forest lake in mid-winter.

They couldn't hear, in their suits. They could only feel. But all at
once the outer rind, above their plane, vanished. At the same instant
the plane itself, propeller still spinning, rose swiftly up through the
hole in the rind. The air inside the globe was going out in a great
rush.

The partners looked at each other. At that moment the four planes
swooped over the space ship....

* * * *