t beat Dick and Martin in a thousand
years!"

The tension under which they had been laboring so long suddenly
released, the two girls locked their arms around each other in a
half-hysterical outburst of relief. Margaret's meaningless words and
Dorothy's incoherent praises of her lover and Crane mingled with their
racking sobs as each fought to recover self-possession.

DuQuesne had instantly mounted to the upper window. Throwing back the
cover, he flashed his torch rapidly. The glare of the searchlight was
snuffed out and he saw a flashing light spell out in dots and dashes:

"Can you read Morse?"

"Yes," he signalled back. "Power gone, drifting into...."

"We know it. Will you resist?"

"No."

"Have you fur pressure-suits?"

"Yes."

"Put them on. Shut off your outer coating. Will touch so your upper door
against our lower. Open, transfer quick."

"O. K."

* * * * *

Hastily returning to the main compartment, he briefly informed the girls
as to what had happened. All three donned the suits and stationed
themselves at the upper opening. Rapidly, but with unerring precision,
the two ships were brought into place and held together by the
attractor. As the doors were opened, there was a screaming hiss as the
air of the vessels escaped through the narrow crack between them. The
passengers saw the moisture in the air turn into snow, and saw the air
itself first liquefy and then freeze into a solid coating upon the metal
around the orifices at the touch of the frightful cold outside--the
absolute zero of interstellar space, about four hundred sixty degrees
below zero in the every-day scale of temperature. The moisture of their
breath condensed upon the inside of the double glasses of their helmets,
rendering sight useless.

[Illustration: DuQuesne seized her and tossed her lightly through the
doorway in such a manner that she would not touch the metal, which would
have frozen instantly anything coming into contact with it.]

Dorothy pushed the other girl ahead of her. DuQuesne seized her and
tossed her lightly through the doorway in such a manner that she would
not touch the metal, which would have frozen instantly anything coming
into contact with it. Seaton was waiting. Feeling a woman's slender form
in his arms, he crushed her to him in a mighty embrace, and was
astonished to feel movements of resistance, and to hear a strange,
girlish voice cry out:

"Don't! It's me! Doro