were quite
capable of reaching Jupiter's Satellite III, only some
thirty thousand miles away.

"Then speeding through space, Captain Carse discovered why
he had never been able to find the asteroid-stronghold. He
could not see it! Dr. Ku Sui had protected his lair by
making it invisible! But Carse was at least confident that
by breaking the dome he had destroyed all life within in,
including the coordinated brains.

"So ended The Affair of the Brains.[1]

"The three comrades reached Satellite III safely, where,
after a few minor adventures, Captain Carse...."

[Footnote 1: See the March, 1932, Issue of Astounding Stories.]

Sewell's ruthless surgery is most evident in that last paragraph. Of
course his telescoping of the events was due to limited space; but
he did wish to draw a full-length, character-revealing portrait of
Hawk Carse, and with "... reached Satellite III safely, where, after a
few minor adventures, Captain Carse ..." learned old John Sewell slid
over one of his greatest opportunities.

The resourcefulness of Hawk Carse! In these "few minor adventures" he
had but one weapon with which to joust against overwhelming odds on an
apparently hopeless quest. This weapon was a space-suit--nothing
more--yet so brilliantly and daringly did he wield its unique
advantages that he penetrated seemingly impregnable barriers and
achieved alone what another man would have required the ray-batteries
of a space-fleet to do.

But here is the story, heard first from Friday's lips and told and
re-told down through the years on the lonely ranches of the outlying
planets, of that one dark, savage night on Satellite II and of the
indomitable man who winged his lone way through it. Hawk Carse! Old
adventurer! Rise from your unknown star-girdled grave and live again!

* * * * *

Thirty thousand miles was the gap between Dr. Ku Sui's asteroid and
Satellite III, the nearest haven. Thirty thousand miles in a
space-ship is about the time of a peaceful cigarro. Thirty thousand
miles in a cramped awkward space-suit grow into a nightmare journey,
an eternity of suffering, and they will kill a good number of those
who traverse them so.

For, take away the metal bulkheads and walls, soft lights and warmth of
a space-liner, get out in a small cramped space-suit, and space loses
its mask of harmlessness and stands revealed as the bleak, unfeelin