our own system into outer space, and we shall either fall on the surface
of this dead sun and be reduced to a puff of lighted gas in an instant,
or some other body will pull us away from it, and then another away from
that, and so on, and we shall wander among the stars for ever and ever
until the end of time!"

"If the first happens, darling, we shall die--together--without knowing
it. It's the second that I'm most afraid of. The _Astronef_ may go on
wandering among the stars for ever--but we have only water enough for
three weeks more. Now come into the conning-tower and we'll see how
things are going."

As they bent their heads over the instrument-table Redgrave saw that the
remorseless needle had moved two degrees more to the right. The keel of
the _Astronef_, under the impulse of the R. Force, was continually
turning. The pull of the invisible orb was dragging her slowly but
irresistibly out of her line.

"There's nothing for it but this," said Redgrave, putting out his hand
to the signal-board, and signalling to Murgatroyd to put the engines to
their highest capacity. "You see, dear, our greatest danger is this: we
had to exert such a tremendous lot of power getting away from Jupiter
and Saturn, that we haven't any too much to spare, and if we have to
spend it in counteracting the pull of this dead sun, or whatever it is,
we may not have enough of what I call the R. fluid left to get home
with."

"I see," she said, staring with wide-open eyes at the needle. "You mean
that we may not have enough to keep us from falling into one of the
planets or perhaps into the Sun itself. Well, supposing the dangers are
equal, this one is the nearest, and so I guess we've got to fight it
first."

"Spoken like a good American!" he said, putting his arm across her
shoulders and looking at once with infinite pride and infinite regret at
the calm, proud face which the glory of resignation had adorned with a
new beauty.

She bowed her head and then looked away again so that he should not see
that there were tears in her eyes. He took his hand from her shoulder
and stared in silence down at the needle. It was stationary again.

"We've stopped!" he said, after a pause of several moments. "Now, if the
body that's taken us out of our course is moving away from us we win, if
it's coming towards us we lose. At any rate, we've done all we can. Come
along, Zaidie, let's go and have a walk on deck."

They had scarcely reached the upp