"Dick, no plane ever made before would have stood the terrific pulls and yanks that his plane got. He was steering and twisting on the standard type air rudders, and what strains he had! The unique type of plane must be extremely strong. I never saw one shaped like his before, though--it is the obvious shape at that! It was just a huge triangular arrowhead! Did you ever see one like it?" "Something like it, yes, and so have you. Don't you recognize that as the development of the old paper gliders you used to throw around as a kid? It has the same shape, the triangular wings with the point in the lead, except that he undoubtedly had a slight curve to the wings to increase the efficiency. Something like the flying wings of fifty years ago. I hope that man is only a kleptomaniac, because he can be cured of that, and I may then have a new laboratory partner. He has some exceedingly intelligent ideas! "He's an ingenious man, but I wish he didn't store quite so much fuel in his rocket tubes! It's unbearably cold in here, and I can't sacrifice any power just for comfort. The rocket ship up there seems to be getting more and more acceleration in the level. He has me dropping steadily to get air to run the generator. He is going fast enough!" They followed beneath the pirate, faster and faster as the rockets of the ship began to push it forward more and more. "Dick, why is it he didn't use all his rockets at first instead of gradually increasing the power this way?" "If you were operating the ship, Morey, you'd understand. Look at the speedometer a moment and see if you can figure it out." "Hmmm--4.5 miles per second--buzzing right along--but I don't see what that--good Lord! We never will get him at this rate! How do you expect to get him?" "I have no idea--yet. But you missed the important point. He is going 4.5 miles a second. When he reaches 5 miles a second he will never come down from his hundred and fifty mile high perch! He will establish an orbit! He has so much centrifugal force already that he has very little weight. We are staying right beneath him, so we don't have much either. Well, there he goes in a last spurt. We are falling behind pretty fast--there we are catching up now--no--we are just holding parallel! He's done it! Look!" Arcot pulled out his watch and let go of it. It floated motionless in the air for a moment, then slowly drifted back toward the rear of the room. "I am using a bit of acceleration--a bit more than we need to maintain our speed. We are up high enough to make the air resistance almost nothing, even at this velocity, but we still require some power. I don't know--" There was a low buzz, repeated twice. Instantly Morey turned the dials of the radio receiving set--again the call signal sounded. In a moment a voice came in--low, but distinct. The power seemed fading rapidly.