the girl said. “The Space Command has been using its priority wave length more than ever in the past few days.”

“Sorry, but I can’t give out any information,” Rob told her. “All Space Command flights are top secret, you know.”

“I know. But a person can’t help wondering. I mean after all that panic that’s going on back on Earth—”

It would never do for her to find out about Operation Big Boy, Rob thought worriedly, so he decided to end the conversation completely.

He looked at his watch and said, “I’ve got to get back to my quarters now. I’m grateful for what you told me about your brother. If he co-operates with us, we’ll go halfway with him. Just remind him of that.”

Dulcie looked at him intently. “Clay and I are the last of the Gerards, Lieutenant Allison. Our heritage has been a great one, and I guess that’s what’s helped to make Clay like he is. It’s because Clay is the last of our family to carry the name that I want so hard for him to make good.”

“With a sister like you encouraging him, Miss Gerard, I don’t see how he can miss,” Rob told her gallantly and with an engaging smile.

Her thoughtful gaze followed his figure until it disappeared around the far corner of the hall.

A few hours afterward, the six-man crew of the Cetus X-500 was in the Space Command planetarium receiving final briefing from General Forester. The spacious dark room gleamed with thousands of lights, each one of them accurately depicting a prominent star in the heavens. General Forester pointed to a pulsing hazy spot against the starlight.

“This is the R-cloud,” he said. “It’s really invisible, of course, but it’s made visible in here to show you its location. Its apparent direction is a few degrees south of the bright star Procyon in the constellation Canis Minor, almost on the plane of the ecliptic. Some of our scientists believe the cloud was an eruption from Procyon about fifteen years ago. Starting eleven light years away and traveling nearly at the speed of light, it’s just getting here.”

“Am I right, sir,” Lieutenant Swenson said, “in assuming that there will be a colossal explosion when our bombs contact it?”

“Undoubtedly,” the general assured him. “For that reason you will release the guided missiles when you reach the edge of the solar system. Unless the cloud changes course, which 

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