inted at Manning through the thick lenses. "You never miss a bet, do
you?"

Greg laughed. "I try not to."

A little silence fell upon the three men and Manning's image.

Greg broke it. "How about your energy collector?" he asked Craven. "Will
it maintain the ship out here? You get cosmic rays. Not too much else,
I'm afraid."

Craven grinned wryly. "You're right, but we can get along. The
accumulators are practically drained, though, and we won't be able to
store anything. Would you mind shooting us over just a little power?
Enough to charge the accumulators a little for emergency use."

He looked over his shoulder, almost apprehensively.

"There might be an emergency out here, you know. Nobody knows anything
about this place."

"I'll give you a little power," Greg agreed.

"Thank you very much," said Craven, half in mockery. "No doubt you think
yourself quite smart, Manning, getting us out here. You know you have us
stranded, that we can't collect more than enough power to live on."

"That's why I did it," Greg said, and vanished.

_CHAPTER NINETEEN_

Craven watched the _Invincible_ gather speed and tear swiftly through
the black, saw it grow tiny and then disappear entirely, either
swallowed by the distance or snapping into the strange super-space that
existed beyond the speed of light.

He turned from the window, chuckling.

Stutsman snarled at him: "What's so funny?"

The scientist glared at the wolfish face and without speaking, walked to
the desk and sat down. He reached for pencil and paper.

Chambers walked over to watch him.

"You've found something, Doctor," he said quietly.

Craven laughed, throatily. "Yes, I have. I've found a lot. Manning
thinks he can keep us out here, but he's wrong. We'll be in the Solar
System less than a week after he gets there."

Chambers stifled a gasp, tried to speak calmly. "You mean this?"

"Of course I mean it. I don't waste my time with foolish jokes."

"You have the secret of material energy?"

"Not that," the scientist growled, "but I have something else as
valuable. I have the secret of Manning's drive: I know what it is that
enables him to exceed the speed of light ... to go ten thousand times as
fast as light ... the Lord knows how much faster if he wanted to."

"No ordinary drive would do that," said Chambers. "It would take more
than power to make a ship go that fast."

"You bet your life it would, and Manning is the boy who's got it. H