rse, while enjoying Dorothy's presence to the full. Crane and
Margaret talked easily, but at intervals. Save when directly addressed.
DuQuesne maintained silence--not the silence of one who knows himself to
be an intruder, but the silence of perfect self-sufficiency. The meal
over, the girls washed the dishes and busied themselves in the galley.
Seaton and Crane made another observation upon the Earth, requesting
DuQuesne to stay out of the "engine room" as they called the
partially-enclosed space surrounding the main instrument board, where
were located the object-compasses and the mechanism controlling the
attractor, about which DuQuesne knew nothing. As they rejoined DuQuesne
in the main compartment, Seaton said:

"DuQuesne, we're nearly five thousand light-years away from the Earth,
and are getting farther at the rate of about one light-year per minute."

"I suppose that it would be poor technique to ask how you know?"

"It would--very poor. Our figures are right. The difficulty is that we
have only four bars left--enough to stop us and a little to spare, but
not nearly enough to get back with, even if we could take a chance on
drifting straight that far without being swung off--which, of course, is
impossible."

"That means that we must land somewhere and dig some copper, then."

"Exactly.

"The first thing to do is to find a place to land."

Seaton picked out a distant star in their course and observed it through
the spectroscope. Since it was found to contain copper in notable
amounts, all agreed that its planets probably also contained copper.

"Don't know whether we can stop that soon or not," remarked Seaton as he
set the levers, "but we may as well have something to shoot at. We'd
better take our regular twelve-hour tricks, hadn't we, Mart? It's a
wonder we got as far as this without striking another snag. I'll take
the first trick at the board--beat it to bed."

"Not so fast, Dick," argued Crane, as Seaton turned toward the
engine-room: "It's my turn."

"Flip a nickel," suggested Seaton. "Heads I get it."

Crane flipped a coin. Heads it was, and the worn-out party went to their
rooms, all save Dorothy, who lingered after the others to bid her lover
a more intimate good-night.

Seated beside him, his arm around her and her head upon his shoulder,
Dorothy exclaimed:

"Oh, Dicky, Dicky, it is wonderful to be with you again! I've lived as
many years in the last week as we have covered miles!"

S