He did not know that the Ring was at that moment flying out into space with a velocity of over twenty miles a second, and that Hooker had stopped his driving machinery and was depending upon the momentum of his machine to carry him over the remainder of his journey--in other words, that he was coasting out to his encounter with the asteroid Medusa. PART III THE FLIGHT OF THE RING I "Turn her loose!" repeated Hooker, and stepped swiftly to the nearest port-hole, while Rhoda, lying in her place of concealment behind the chair, clutched at the floor in breathless apprehension. A humming sound filled the air. Through the open door of the lighted control-room, the girl could see the gyroscopes slowly beginning to revolve. The Ring throbbed as if alive. Fear seized her. Perhaps she could still escape from her voluntary imprisonment. Perhaps she could even yet open the air-lock and leap safely back to earth. She almost longed for her aunt. And then her courage came back with a rush. There was her lover--her funny little Bennie--staring out of the window, a strange expression of exaltation on his face. Here was where she wanted to be--with _him_! With him, on his strange, unearthly journey! With him amid the stars, journeying to the music of the spheres! Through the window she could see flickers of yellow light, and from outside came a noise like escaping steam. The glow cast strange shadows on Bennie's face, and gave his features a pallid tinge that frightened her anew. The discharge from the tractor had risen to a muffled roar--deafening. The floor trembled and quivered, and the glare, now pouring through the deadlights, paled the electric lights of the interior. There was a tremendous hullabaloo going on out there. She clambered to her feet. "Bennie!" she shouted instinctively, holding out her arms to him. Amid the tumult, he turned to her a face like that of a man who sees a ghost. "My God!" he gasped. "How did you get here?" She walked unsteadily toward him and clutched his arm. "I'm going, too," she said. "I told you I would. I'm a stowaway." Bennie put his arm around her waist and dragged her to the window. "Now you're here," he cried hysterically, "just look at that!"