of a million tons and is held by gyroscopes. We
won't shake it."

While Morey took the time exposure, Arcot looked at the enlarged image
in the telectroscope and tried to make angular measurements from the
individual stars. This he found impossible. Although he could spot
Betelgeuse and Antares because of their tremendous radiation, they were
too close together for measurements; the angle subtended was too small.

Finally, he decided to use the distance between Antares and S Doradus in
the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, one of the two clouds of stars which float
as satellites to the Galaxy itself.

To double-check, he used the radius of the Galaxy as base to calculate
the distance. The distances checked. The ship was five hundred thousand
light years from home!

After all the necessary observations were made, they swung the ship on
its axis and looked ahead for a landing place.

The nebulae ahead were still invisible to the naked eye except as
points, but the telectroscope finally revealed one as decidedly nearer
than the rest. It seemed to be a young Island Universe, for there was
still a vast cloud of gas and dust from which stars were yet to be born
in the central whorl--a single titanic gas cloud that stretched out
through a million billion miles of space.

"Shall we head for that?" asked Arcot at last, as Morey finished his
observations.

"I think it would be as good as any--there are more stars there than we
can hope to visit."

"Well, then, here we go!"

Arcot dived for the control room, while Morey shut off the telectroscope
and put the latest photographs in the file.

Suddenly space was snapping about him--they were off again. Another
shock of surging energy--another--the ship leaped forward at tremendous
speed--still greater--then they were rushing at top speed, and beside
them ran the ghost ships of the _Ancient Mariner_.

Morey pushed himself into the control room just as Arcot, Wade, and
Fuller were getting ready to start for the lab.

"We're off for quite a while, now," he said. "Our goal is about five
days away. I suggest we stop at the end of four days, make more
accurate measurements, then plan a closer stop.

"I think from now on we ought to sleep in relays, so that there will be
three of us awake at all times. I'll turn in now for ten hours, and then
someone else can sleep. Okay?"

It was agreed, and in the meantime the three on duty went down to the
lab to work.

Arcot had finished the