ose behind him
toward the water, so it could be used as an intake for the pumps.

Morey, meanwhile, was having trouble. He had been carrying a load of
assorted things to use--a few pneumatic pillows, a heavy iron pot for
boiling the water, and a number of other things.

He reached his destination, having floated the hundred or so feet from
the ship by using his power suit. He forgot, momentarily, and dropped
his load. Immediately, he too began to "drop"--upward! He had a
buoyancy of around three hundred pounds, and a weight of only two fifty.
In dropping the load, the sudden release had caused the power unit to
jerk him upward, and somehow the controlling knob on the power pack was
torn loose.

Morey shot up into the air, showing a fair rate of progress toward his
late abode--space! And he had no way to stop himself. His hand power
unit was far too weak to overcome the pull of his power-pack, and he was
rising faster and faster!

He realized that his friends could catch him, and laughingly called
down: "Arcot! Help! I'm being kidnapped by my power suit! To the
rescue!"

Arcot looked up quickly at Morey's call and realized immediately that
his power control had come off. He knew there was twenty miles or so of
breathable air above, and long before Morey rose that far, he could
catch him in the _Ancient Mariner_, if necessary.

He turned on his own power suit, using a lift of a hundred pounds, which
gave him double Morey's acceleration. Quickly he gathered speed that
shot him up toward his helpless friend, and a moment later, he had
caught up with him and passed him. Then he shut off his power and
drifted to a halt before he began to drop again. As Morey rose toward
him, Arcot adjusted the power in his own suit to match Morey's velocity.

Arcot grabbed Morey's leg and turned his power down until he had a
weight of fifty pounds. Soon they were both falling again, and when
their rate of fall amounted to approximately twenty miles per hour,
Arcot cut their weight to zero and they continued down through their
momentum. Just short of the ground, he leaped free of Morey, who,
carried on by momentum, touched the ground a moment later. Wade at once
jumped in and held him down.

"Now, now! Calm yourself," said Wade solicitously. "Don't go up in the
air like that over the least little thing."

"I won't, if you'll get busy and take this damned thing off--or fasten
some lead to my feet!" replied Morey, starting to unstrap