s pants. Ascending into
the control room, he saw Lockhart, the two astronomers, and the entire
engineering crew gathered over the controls in worried concentration.

He peered over their shoulders, but the dials meant little to him, since
he did not know what they should have said. "What's happened?" he asked
Russ.

Russ took him aside. "We're not going to make our connection with
Venus," he said. "Our generators didn't operate exactly as we had hoped.
We haven't been able to slow down enough, the pull of the Sun is
stronger than the power we can raise to stop it at our present speed.
We're going to shoot past Venus' orbit way ahead of the planet, and
we're still heading sunward at a faster rate than we figured on."

"You mean--we're falling into the Sun!" gasped Burl.

"As things stand right now," said the youthful astrogator, "that's just
what is happening."

Chapter 7. _Hot Spot on Mercury_

It seemed strange to Burl at that moment that there wasn't more
excitement on board the _Magellan_. To learn so early in the game that
all were doomed should have brought more reaction. It should have
excited some sort of frenzy, or efforts to abandon ship, or something.
But the men in the cabin, though keyed up, were anything but panicky.

Instead, there seemed to be grim concentration on their faces, an
earnestness that spoke of a plan. Through a viewer which had been
shielded so that the light would not blind the eyes, Burl could see the
wide disc of the Sun now. A few spots were visible on its blazing
surface, and great tongues of burning gases encircled it for hundreds of
thousands of miles. Were they really destined to end a mere cinder--an
instantaneous flicker of fire in one of those prominences?

Clyde was working with Oberfield at the calculators. Burl watched them
in silence, trying to determine what it was they were getting at.
Finally they pulled a figure from one of their machines and took it over
to Lockhart and the engineers. There was a brief conference, and
something seemed to be agreed upon.

Clyde's face, which had been tense, was now more relaxed. "I think we've
got the problem licked," came the good word.

"What's up?" asked Burl. "If we shoot past Venus, we should still be
able to come to a stop, fall away from the Sun and maybe catch up with
Venus again. It would take longer, but...."

"We're altering our plans," interrupted Russ. "Of course, we could
brake--that much we found out for