ty of
time."

"Time is the one thing there's plenty of in this damned place," Krell
agreed. "We'll be getting back to the _Martian Queen_ now and give the
good news to Jandron and the rest."

"Wouldn't mind if Liggett and I came along, would you?" Kent asked. "I'd
like to see how your ship's fixed--that is, if it's all right with you,
sir," he added to his superior.

Crain nodded. "All right if you don't stay long," he said. But, to
Kent's surprise Krell seemed reluctant to endorse his proposal.

"I guess it'll be all right," he said slowly, "though there's nothing
much on the _Martian Queen_ to see."

* * * * *

Krell and his followers replaced their helmets and returned into the
airlock. Liggett followed them, and, as Kent struggled hastily into a
space-suit, he found Captain Crain at his side.

"Kent, look sharp when you get over on that ship," Crain told him. "I
don't like the look of this Krell, and his story about all the officers
being killed in the explosion sounds fishy to me."

"To me, too," Kent agreed. "But Liggett and I will have the suit-phones
in our space-suits and can call you from there in case of need."

Crain nodded, and Kent with space-suit on and transparent helmet
screwed tight, stepped into the airlock with the rest. The airlock's
inner door closed, the outer one opened, and as the air puffed out into
space, Kent and Krell and Liggett leapt out into the void, the others
following.

It was no novelty to Kent to float in a space-suit in the empty void. He
and the others now floated as smoothly as though under water toward a
wrecked liner at the _Pallas'_ right. They reached it, pulled themselves
around it, and, with feet braced against its side, propelled themselves
on through space along the border of the wreck-pack.

They passed a half-dozen wrecks thus, before coming to the _Martian
Queen_. It was a silvery, glistening ship whose stern and lower walls
were bulging and strained, but not cracked. Kent told himself that Krell
had spoken truth about the exploding rocket-tubes, at least.

They struck the _Martian Queen's_ side and entered the upper-airlock
open for them. Once through the airlock they found themselves on the
ship's upper-deck. And when Kent and Liggett removed their helmets with
the others they found a full dozen men confronting them, a brutal-faced
group who exhibited some surprise at sight of them.

* * * * *

For