of the room. Tom took a
deep breath, crossed his fingers, and put the next step of his plan into
action. He reached out and pulled the master acceleration switch all the
way back. The _Polaris_ jumped ahead as if shot out of a cannon.

"Hey," growled Mason, "what're you doing?"

"You want more speed, don't you?" demanded Tom.

"O.K.," said Mason, "but don't try any funny stuff!"

"I don't see how I can. You've got me nailed with that paralo-ray," Tom
replied.

He got up leisurely, so as not to excite the nervous trigger finger of
Loring, and turned slowly.

"What is it this time?" demanded Loring.

"I just gave you an extra burst of speed. All the _Polaris_ will take.
Now I've got to adjust the mixture of the fuel, otherwise she'll kick
out on you and we'll have to clean out the tubes."

"Yeah," sneered Loring. "Well, I happen to know you do that right on the
control board." He motioned with the paralo-ray gun. "Get back down!"

"On regular space drive, you do," agreed Tom. "But we're on hyperdrive
now. It has to be done there"--he pointed to a cluster of valves and
wheels at one side of the control deck--"one of those valve wheels."

"Stay where you are," said Mason. "I'll do it!" He moved to the corner.
"Which one is it?" he asked.

Tom gulped and struggled hard to keep the terrible nervousness out of
his voice. He had to sound as casual as possible. "The red one. Turn it
to the right, hard!" he said.

Loring sat down and Mason bent over the valve wheel. He gave the wheel a
vicious twist. Suddenly there was the sound of a motor slowing down
somewhere inside the great ship. Tom gripped the edge of the control
board and waited. Slowly at first, but surely, Tom felt himself
beginning to float off his chair.

"Hey!" yelled Mason. "I'm--I'm floating!"

"It's the gravity generators," yelled Loring. "Corbett's pulled a fast
one. We're in free fall!"

Tom lifted his feet and pushed as hard as he could against the control
panel. He shot out of the chair and across the control room just as
Loring fired his ray gun. There was a loud hiss as the gun was fired,
and then the thud of a body against the wall, as Loring was suddenly
shoved by the recoil of the charge.

Tom huddled in the upper corner of the control deck like a spider, his
legs drawn up underneath him waiting for Mason to fire. But the smaller
spaceman was tumbling head over heels in the center of the room. The
more he exerted himself, the more help