ns that they will go with us instead of saving us, for of
course they can't pull away, since we couldn't. I hope they don't find
us, but locate this star in time to keep away from it."

"Why?" she gasped. "You have been planning to kill both of them! I
should think you would be delighted to take them with us?"

"Far from it. Please try to be logical. I intended to remove them
because they stood in the way of my developing this new metal. If I am
to be out of the way--and frankly, I see very little chance of getting
out of this--I hope that Seaton goes ahead with it. It is the greatest
discovery the world has ever known, and if both Seaton and I, the only
two men in the world who know how to handle it, drop out, it will be
lost for perhaps hundreds of years."

"If Dick's finding us means that he must go, too, of course I hope that
he won't find us, but I don't believe that. I simply know that he could
get us away from here."

She continued more slowly, almost speaking to herself, her heart sinking
with her voice:

"He is following us, and he won't stop even if he does see this dead
star and knows that he can't get away. We will die together."

"There's no denying the fact that our situation is critical, but you
know a man isn't dead until after his heart stops beating. We have two
whole days yet, and in that time, I can probably dope out some way of
getting away from here."

"I hope so," she replied, keeping her voice from breaking only by a
great effort. "But go ahead with your doping. I'm worn out." She drew
herself down upon one of the seats and stared at the ceiling, fighting
to restrain an almost overpowering impulse to scream.

Thus the hours wore by--Perkins dead; Margaret still unconscious;
Dorothy lying in her seat, her thoughts a formless prayer, buoyed up
only by her faith in God and in her lover; DuQuesne self-possessed,
smoking innumerable cigarettes, his keen mind grappling with its most
desperate problem, grimly fighting until the very last instant of
life--while the powerless space-car fell with an appalling velocity,
faster and faster; falling toward that cold and desolate monster of the
heaven.

CHAPTER X

The Rescue

Seaton and Crane drove the Skylark in the direction indicated by the
unwavering object-compass with the greatest acceleration they could
stand, each man taking a twelve-hour watch at the instrument board.

Now, indeed, did the Skylark justify the faith of her builder