ike a pebble in a sling. A cloud of smoke burst from the burned
lining of the friction brake, in the reel. Then the wire was all out;
there was a sudden jerk.

And the hard-gathered sphere of metal was gone--snapped off into
space. Thad clung desperately to the wire, muscles cracking, tortured
arms almost drawn from their sockets. Fear flashed over his mind; what
if the wire broke, and left him floating helpless in space?

* * * * *

It held, though, to his relief. He was trailing behind the ship.
Eagerly he seized the handle of the reel; began to wind up the mile of
thin wire. Half an hour later, Thad's suited figure bumped gently
against the shining hull of the rocket. He got to his feet, and gazed
backward into the starry gulf, where his sphere of iron had long since
vanished.

"Somebody is going to find himself a nice chunk of metal, all welded
together and equipped for rocket navigation," he murmured. "As for
me--well, I've simply _got_ to run this tub to Mars!"

He walked over the smooth, refulgent hull, held to it by magnetic
soles. Nowhere was it broken, though he found scars where small
meteoric particles had scratched the brilliant polish. So no meteor
had wrecked the ship. What, then, was the matter? Soon he would know.

The _Red Dragon_ was not large. A hundred and thirty feet long, Thad
estimated, with a beam of twenty-five feet. But her trim lines bespoke
design recent and good; the double ring of black projecting rockets at
the stern told of unusual speed.

A pretty piece of salvage, he reflected, if he could land her on
Mars. Half the value of such a ship, unharmed and safe in port, would
be a larger sum than he dared put in figures. And he must take her in,
now that he had lost his own rocket!

He found the life-tubes, six of them, slender, silvery cylinders,
lying secure in their niches, three along each side of the flier. None
was missing. So the crew had not willingly deserted the ship.

He approached the main air-lock, at the center of the hull, behind the
projecting dome of the bridge. It was closed. A glance at the dials
told him there was full air pressure within it. It had, then, last
been used to enter the rocket, not to leave it.

* * * * *

Thad opened the exhaust valve, let the air hiss from the chamber of
the lock. The huge door swung open in response to his hand upon the
wheel, and he entered the cylindrical chamber