was only a matter of miles covered in an elapsed time
of mili-seconds, Pluto might drag you into a landing orbit. If that
happened, traveling at tremendous speed, there'd be the double danger of
overheating in the planet's atmosphere and coming down too hard. Either
way the results could be fatal.

His hands sweating, Bartock struggled with the controls. Now already he
could see Pluto bulking, its night-side black and mysterious, in the
viewport. Now he could hear the faint shrill scream of its atmosphere.
Now....

Trying to time it perfectly, he slammed on full power.

A fraction of a mili-second too late.

_Mozart's Lady_ stood for an instant on its tail, shuddering as if it
were going to come apart and rain meteoric dust over Pluto's surface.
That had happened too in such a maneuver, but it didn't happen now.

Instead, _Mozart's Lady_ went into a landing orbit.

But its speed was still terrific and, lowering, it whizzed twice around
Pluto's fifteen thousand mile circumference in twenty minutes.
Atmosphere screamed, the heat siren shrilled, and a cursing House
Bartock applied the braking rockets as fast as he could.

Pluto's surface blurred in the viewport, coming closer at dizzying
speed. Bartock stood _Mozart's Lady_ on its tail a second time, this
time on purpose.

The ship shuddered, and struck Pluto.

Bartock blacked out.

* * * * *

When Mayhem's radar screen informed him that _Mozart's Lady_ had failed
to break free of Pluto's field of gravity, Mayhem immediately went to
work. First he allowed the tiny scout-ship to complete its planet-swing
successfully, then he slowed down, turned around in deep space, and came
back, scanning Pluto with radar scopes and telescope until he located
the bigger ship. That might have taken hours or days ordinarily, but
having seen _Mozart's Lady_ go in, and having recorded its position via
radar, Mayhem had a pretty good idea as to the landing orbit it would
follow.

It took him three-quarters of an hour to locate the bigger ship. When he
finally had located it, he brought it into close-up with the more
powerful of the two telescopes aboard the scout.

_Mozart's Lady_ lay on its side in a snow-tundra. It had been damaged,
but not severely. Part of the visible side was caved in, but the ship
had not fallen apart. Still, chances were that without extensive repairs
it would not be able to leave Pluto.

There was no way, Mayhem knew, o