y that the Ripples are an analogous
band of mysterious forces existing in hyperspace. They may be tangible
barriers, they may be force barriers, we do not know. But a ship
entering this lane _may_ go through it without damage, and by pure
chance take a course which misses all these bumps in space. Or, by going
slowly and using his instruments to feel his way, a navigator can often
sense them ahead, and if he is skillful he may be able to dodge them.
But if, in some terrible moment, he smashes head-on against the Thakura
Ripples, the conversion Piles which power his ship are immediately
affected. They begin to heat, perhaps to heat irreversibly, and if they
get out of control, they may vaporize. In the last fifty years at least
five ships have vanished in this region, and it was Thakura's belief
that they were disintegrated on the Ripples."

"But there isn't any evidence!" Jasperson exploded.

"Isn't a demolished space ship evidence?"

"No! It's evidence that something went wrong, certainly, but it doesn't
tell us _what_ went wrong. I'm not an unreasonable man, professor, I'm a
hardheaded business man, and I like to deal with facts."

"I don't have an intimate knowledge of these matters, of course," said
Larrabee, "but it was my impression that in the past fifty years since
travel in hyperspace became common, several ships have been
unaccountably lost."

"Your first figure was right. Five ships have been lost--that much is
fact. Why they were lost is still a question. It's my considered
opinion that they were lost by human failure; the crewmen let the Piles
get hot, and the ships were helpless. In the early days they had to get
along with only one or two Piles, and if they went wrong the ship was
done for. But we've changed all that. That's why the _Star Lord_ has
twenty-four Piles. No matter what happens it's impossible that _all_ of
them should go bad at once. She can ditch the dangerous Piles and still
always have power enough left to make port. One thing is certain, this
ship will never be wrecked on the Ripples of a mad scientist's
imagination! A phenomenon like the Ripples, is impossible. If it
existed, we'd have had some proof of it many years ago."

"But surely you don't mean to imply that if we don't know a fact, it is
therefore impossible?"

"Not at all. But you know yourself, Professor Larrabee--you're an
educated man--that by this time our physicists understand the universe
completely, from A to Z. Th