Page:Weird Tales volume 30 number 06.djvu/82

732 a heavy sigh of relief. "Thank heaven you are better, and will soon be able to skipper the Neutralia again. All I know for certain is that we are somewhere out in space, and the pointers haven't been visible for ages."

"Forty-eight hours!" echoed Carscadden. "Here, give me a hand; I must see to this. Forty-eight hours, and going full steam ahead!" he repeated, as though dazed by the notion.

a litlelittle [sic] assistance, for he was not in any way injured, and the poison seemed to have worked its way completely out of his system, he walked across to his beloved registers, and bent over, studying them earnestly for several moments. When he looked up again, his eyes held a queer expression, an expression of mingled amazement, pride, and consternation.

"Why didn't you move the cover about, and check the speed?" he asked.

"Well, we were in the dark as to your calculations, and were afraid of either falling back to Mars, or into the sun. I reckoned we were safer out here, and Kobloth said there was enough air to last us a month," replied Burgoyne.

"Yes, perhaps you were safer—that cover requires delicate manipulation. But it's high time I woke up. Do you know where we are?" asked the scientist.

"Somewhere out in space. Beyond that I haven't a notion," replied Burgoyne as lightly as though he spoke of a car ride over some new country in his own home state.

"As a matter of fact, and to be more precise, we certainly are out in space. At a rough estimate, we are about ten or eleven hours' run from the planet Jupiter. When you left Mars it was night, and Jupiter being the nearest large planet, you were naturally attracted by it. See, that's Jupiter, over there. I should have thought Kobolth could have told you that," said Carscadden in surprize.

"He's been sleeping for several hours—and that queer star has grown much larger in my watch. I was getting a bit worried about it, to say the truth," declared Burgoyne apologetically.

"No wonder it's been growing larger rapidly. Do you know we are rushing to it at nearly ten million miles an hour? Over 150,000 miles a minute! And as the planet is a little to the eastward of Mars, we have traversed an arc of its orbit, of about six hundred million miles! Does that satisfy your ambitions?"

"That's breaking records!" cried Burgoyne with raised eyebrows. "Since we are so near to this planet Jupiter, why not have a look at it. A few hours more or less cannot make much difference to us, surely."

"Jupiter!" echoed Kobloth and Flint in the same breath. For the two sleepers had now awakened, and had hastened to their captain with many expressions of surprize and relief at his welcome recovery. "Jupiter! Yes, I thought that blazing orb was the huge planet, but I could not credit we had hurtled through space so quickly as all that. Yes, I should like to have a closer look at Jupiter. Does it make much difference to our safety if we hold on for a few hours longer?" and a light came into Kobloth's dark, strong eyes that was not entirely inspired by greed and selfish ambition; for at heart the Austrian was really a scientist, whose evil instincts had been so uncontrolled and dominant that they had wrecked what might have been a notable life.

"No, I don't think it can make much difference to us. I may frankly admit that our chances of hitting the earth again from this vast distance are quite a gamble. But seeing that we have evidence of the stupendous speed the Neutralia is capable of, the matter of time