multitudes of brilliant and unfamiliar stars.

"I don't make it at all, Mart. By the feel, I should say we were falling
toward something that would make our earth look like a pin-head. I
remember now that I noticed that the bus was getting a little out of
plumb with the bar all this last watch. I didn't pay much attention to
it, as I couldn't see anything out of the way. Nothing but a sun could
be big enough to raise all this disturbance, and I can't see any close
enough to be afraid of, can you?"

"No, and I cannot see the Steel space-car, either. Look sharp."

"Of course," Seaton continued to argue as he peered out into the night,
"it is theoretically possible that a heavenly body can exist large
enough so that it could exert even this much force and still appear no
larger than an ordinary star, but I don't believe it is probable. Give
me three or four minutes of visual angle and I'll believe anything, but
none of these stars are big enough to have any visual angle at all.
Furthermore...."

"There is at least half a degree of visual angle!" broke in his friend
intensely. "Just to the left of that constellation that looks so much
like a question mark. It is not bright, but dark, like a very dark
moon--barely perceptible."

Seaton pointed his glass eagerly in the direction indicated.

"Great Cat!" he ejaculated. "I'll say that's some moon! Wouldn't that
rattle your slats? And there's DuQuesne's bus, too, on the right edge.
Get it?"

As they stood up, Seaton's mood turned to one of deadly earnestness, and
a grave look came over Crane's face as the seriousness of their
situation dawned upon them. Trained mathematicians both, they knew
instantly that that unknown world was of inconceivable mass, and that
their chance of escape was none too good, even should they abandon the
other craft to its fate. Seaton stared at Crane, his fists clenched and
drops of perspiration standing on his forehead. Suddenly, with agony in
his eyes and in his voice, he spoke.

"Mighty slim chance of getting away if we go through with it, old
man.... Hate like the devil.... Have no right to ask you to throw
yourself away, too."

"Enough of that, Dick. You had nothing to do with my coming: you could
not have kept me away. We will see it through."

Their hands met in a fierce clasp, broken by Seaton, as he jumped to the
levers with an intense:

"Well, let's get busy!"

In a few minutes they had reduced the distance until they could p