the tough bodies of the Satorians could stand. With
a good head start, they were rapidly escaping.

"We can't equal that acceleration," said Wade. "We'll lose them!"

"Nope!" Arcot said grimly. "I want a couple of those ships, and I'm
going to get them!"

At four gravities of acceleration, the _Ancient Mariner_ drove after the
fleeing ships of Sator, but the enemy ships soon dropped rapidly from
sight.

Twenty five thousand miles out in space, Arcot cut the acceleration.
"We'll catch them now, I think," he said softly. He pushed the little
red switch for an instant, then opened it. A moment before, the planet
Nansal had been a huge disc behind them. Now it was a tiny thing, a full
million miles away.

It took the Satorian fleet over an hour to reach them. They appeared as
dim lights in the telectroscope. They rapidly became larger. Arcot had
extinguished the lights, and since they were on the sunward side of the
approaching ships, the _Ancient Mariner_ was effectively invisible.

"They're going to pass us at a pretty good clip," Morey said quietly.
"They've been accelerating all this time."

Arcot nodded in agreement. "We'll have to hit them as they come toward
us. We'd never get one in passing."

As the ships grew rapidly in the plate, Arcot gave the order to fire!

The molecular rays slashed out toward the onrushing ships, picking them
off as fast as the beams could be directed. The rays were invisible in
space, so they managed to get several before the Satorians realized what
was happening.

Then, in panic, they scattered all over space, fleeing madly from the
impossible ship that was firing on them. They knew they had left it
behind, yet here it was, waiting for them!

"Let them go," Arcot said. "We've got our specimens, and the rest can
carry the word back to Sator that the war is over for them."

It was several hours later that the _Ancient Mariner_ approached Nansal
again, bringing with it two Satorian ships. By careful use of the heat
beam and the molecular beam, the Earthmen had managed to jockey the two
battle cruisers back to Nansal.

It was nighttime when they landed. The whole area around the city was
illuminated by giant searchlights. Men were working recovering the
bodies of the dead, aiding those who had survived, and examining the
wreckage.

Arcot settled the two Satorian ships to the ground, and landed the
_Ancient Mariner_.

Torlos sprinted over the ground toward them as he saw the