irboat, which immediately flew along a ray laid by Ravindau to the
secret rendezvous.

In a remote and desolate part of the planet, concealed in the depths of
the towering jungle growth, a mammoth space-cruiser was receiving her
complement of passengers. Airboats, flying at their terrific velocity
through the heavy, steaming fog as closely-spaced as their controller
rays would permit, flashed signals along their guiding beams, dove into
the apparently impenetrable jungle, and added their passengers to the
throng pouring into the great vessel.

* * * * *

As the minute of departure drew near, the feeling of tension aboard the
cruiser increased and vigilance was raised to the maximum. None of the
passengers had been allowed senders of any description, and now even the
hair-line beams guiding the airboats were cut off, and received only
when the proper code signal was heard. The doors were shut, no one was
allowed outside, and everything was held in readiness for instant flight
at the least alarm. Finally a scientist and his family arrived from the
opposite side of the planet--the last members of the organization--and,
twenty-seven minutes after Ravindau had flashed his signal, the prow of
that mighty space-ship reared toward the perpendicular, poising its
massive length at the predetermined angle. There it halted momentarily,
then disappeared utterly, only a vast column of tortured and shattered
vegetation, torn from the ground and carried for miles upward into the
air by the vacuum of its wake, remaining to indicate the path taken by
the flying projectile.

Hour after hour the Fenachrone vessel bored on, with its frightful and
ever-increasing velocity, through the ever-thinning stars, but it was
not until the last star had been passed, until everything before them
was entirely devoid of light, and until the Galaxy behind them began to
take on a well-defined lenticular aspect, that Ravindau would consent to
leave the controls and to seek his hard-earned rest.

Day after day and week after week went by, and the Fenachrone vessel
still held the rate of motion with which she had started out. Ravindau
and Fenimol sat in the control cabin, staring out through the
visiplates, abstracted. There was no need of staring, and they were not
really looking, for there was nothing at which to look. Outside the
transparent metal hull of that monster of the trackless void, there was
nothing visible. The