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Leithgow smiled gently in answer, then left the cabin for the sleep he needed so badly. Hawk Carse was left alone on watch in the fleeing Sandra. A lonely, intent figure, he stood over the chart-table, working out their best course to Earth. Presently, however, he went back to the infra-red electelscope and swept it over the leagues behind.
He gazed through the electelscope, which had been equipped with an infra-red device and trained on the asteroid, and saw that now, where the massive body of rock had been poised, there was nothing. Only the brilliant light of mid-afternoon, the cloudless sky. Carse swept the glass around. The search was fruitless. The heavens were bare. The asteroid had gone.
"The man behind the panel took the asteroid to Lar Tantril. He is our opponent." Those were his words, but he did nothing. He seemed content to stand with cold, intent face looking back through the infra-red electelscope. The Sandra's speed sank to three hundred, two hundred and soon a hundred, and the asteroid, which was of course also decelerating, crept up remorselessly.
It was a vast, red-belted disk, an eye-thrilling spectacle at their distance, roughly a million miles. Against it were poised two small pale globes, the larger of which was Satellite III. Several hours before, when they had been closer to the satellite, Carse had scrutinized it through the electelscope and made out above its surface a silver dot which was a space-ship.
Carse gave the controls to Ban and examined it carefully through the electelscope, after removing the infra-red attachment. He saw that the keel of the Sandra had torn a great, mangled rent in the dome and through this the air had rushed out. Space had taken possession.
Friday, open our radio receiver to the general band. Just the receiver, not the mike.... Our speed, Eliot?" "Down to seven hundred, and falling steadily." Carse went to the electelscope, after giving the controls over to Ban. Squarely behind the Sandra, and within twenty-five miles, the peanut-shaped body had come. It was an ominous and silent approach.
The defensive web against attacking rays was on. Friday tumbled into the control cabin, and on his heels two of Leithgow's assistants, the third being on duty with the patients. Carse briefly explained what had happened. "Friday," he ordered, "you take the stern ray batteries. Ban " But Ban Wilson had returned to the electelscope, and it had given him more news.
Systematically and carefully the men stationed at the electelscope turned it through the region behind, but never did their watching eyes discern the bulk of the asteroid. Its disappearance, and the kindred mystery of who had been on it, remained unsolved. Therefore peace came to Eliot Leithgow's face, and the tiredness left his eyes.
Carse leaned musing in a corner of the control cabin, oblivious to the well-meaning but toneless voice with which Ban Wilson, at the electelscope was butchering a song. A gentle tap on the shoulder summoned him out of his study. He turned and saw that Leithgow had come to him. Carse smiled at the old scientist, and said: "Well, Eliot, we'll be in soon now.
He watched Carse snap on the automatic control and go to an electelscope which had been equipped with an infra-red device. He directed it rearward on Satellite III, back along the course the Sandra had described, and peered through its eyepiece for several minutes. Then he turned to the old scientist. "Nothing," he said. "No sign of the asteroid as yet. We'll have to keep careful watch.
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