such
sudden, intense acceleration, and for an instant Russ and Greg seemed
to be crushed by a mighty weight that struck at them. The sensation
swiftly lifted as the compensator took up the load.

* * * * *

Greg shook his head, flinging the trickling perspiration from his eyes.

"I hope their compensator worked as well as ours," he said.

"If it didn't," declared Russ, "we're towing a shipload of dead men."

Russ glanced at the speed dial. They were almost touching the speed of
light. "He hasn't cut down our speed yet."

"We threw him off his balance. His drive depends largely on the mass of
some planet as a body to take up the reaction of his ship. Jupiter is
the ideal body for that ... but he's leaving Jupiter behind. He has to
do something soon or it'll be too late."

"He's getting less energy, too," said Russ. "We're retreating from his
main sources of energy, the Sun and Jupiter. Almost the speed of light
and that would cut down his energy intake terrifically. He has to use
what he's got in his accumulators, and after that last blast at us, they
must be nearly drained."

As Russ watched, the speed needle fell off slightly. Russ held his
breath. It edged back slowly, creeping. The speed was being cut down.

"Craven is using whatever power he has," he said. "They're alive back
there, all right. He's trying to catch hold of Jupiter and make its
gravity work for him."

The _Invincible_ felt the strain of the other ship now. Felt it as
Craven poured power into his drive, fighting to get free of the
invisible hawser that had trapped him, fighting against being dragged
into outer space at the tail-end of a mighty craft heading spaceward
with frightening speed.

Girders groaned in the _Invincible_, the engines moaned and throbbed.
The speed needle fell back, creeping down the dial, slowly, unwillingly,
resisting any drop in speed. But Craven was cutting it down. And as he
cut it, he was able to absorb more energy with his collector lens. But
he was fighting two things ... momentum and the steadily decreasing
gravitational pull of Jupiter and the Sun. The Sun's pull was dwindling
slowly, Jupiter's rapidly.

The needle still crept downward.

"What's his point of equality to us?" demanded Greg. "Will we make it?"

Russ shook his head. "Won't know for hours. He'll be able to slow us
up ... maybe he'll even stop us or be able to jerk free, although I
doubt that. But every minute