taking them out from Earth. The atmosphere of the planet had no sooner started a shrill, rising scream around them than it fell and faded as they came out of the envelope of air.

Luna burst up out of the eastern heavens like a great globe of dull gold against the stars. And then Carlin's eyes were smitten by the flare and glare of the brilliant disk of Sol, of the Sun.

And then the "Phoenix" lined out and was plunging headlong through the void at a speed that Carlin knew was flatly illegal to use inside any System, a rush toward that distant Sun flare.

"Cut down, cut down!" cried Jonny to his brother. "Any more speed and you'll not be able to decelerate in time to orbit around the Sun."

Harb Land turned a wild, dirty face aflame with emotion. "By heaven, we're on our way at last! We'll show them now that Earthmen can still blaze a space-trail nobody else has dared!"

And from back amidships came a hoarse voice jubilantly singing the old Earth space-song:

Jonny Land's voice lashed them, his thin face dripping and determined.

"You're all of you blowing your tops with excitement. This hasn't even started yet. Look at what we're heading for!"

Carlin heard the others fall silent and himself felt a chill of awe as he looked ahead at the giant fire orb toward which the "Phoenix" was plunging.

"We'll be orbiting before we have the dredge set up, unless we hurry," Jonny prodded. "Come on, help me with it."

The big magnetic dredge had to be bolted into place, the coils and pipes had to be hooked to their connections inside the ship, the cables to the generators, the cooling coils to the compressor, the outlets of the Markheim filters to the bunkers astern.

Thrumming, creaking, shivering in every strut to the blind thrust of power that was hurling it on, the "Phoenix" rocked and shook about them as Carlin labored with Jonny and two of the other men to make those last connections. The cramped space in the hold around the dredge was hot, stifling, for the oxygenators couldn't keep the air there pure.

"All ready!" Jonny called finally, after eternal-seeming hours of toil. "And none too soon. We're getting there fast. Harb has put out most of the heat-screens."

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