Jak took over the routine duties of their flight, after some additional instruction on points about which he was not sure. In between times, as the lessened pressure allowed, he studied the new specimens he had collected, saw to it that the ship's hydroponics kept operating correctly, and did whatever he could to relieve his brother and his father of their ordinary duties so they could devote all their waking time to study and experiment. Their mother attended to her housekeeping, and saw to the comfort and well-being of her menfolk. Mr. Carver knew, deep within himself, that he was overdoing, considering his illness. His partially-healed broken leg so often pained and throbbed that he had difficulty concealing his hurt from the sharp eyes of his family. But he loved his wife and sons so greatly that their future well-being was far more important to him than his own, and so he never mentioned these things. The sturdy little yacht had covered almost half the tremendous distance back to Sol. The Carvers were beginning to let up a bit in their anxiety and fears. Surely, each one felt, they were winning the race. Then suddenly their alarm rang. Three of them found themselves on their feet, rushing toward the control panel. "How close are they, Jon?" their father yelled from his co-pilot's couch. "_Mmmm._ I've stepped this up about two hundred per cent.... I figure it about half a billion miles." "Not very far--in space. They must have lots more speed than we do to have caught up with us like that." "What shall we do?" Mrs. Carver grabbed her husband's arm with trembling fingers. He turned his head and smiled up at her. "We'll figure out some way to beat them, Honey," he soothed. "There's lots more can be done yet." "Sure, Mom, they're still a long way behind us." Jon tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice. "And you know the old saying, 'a stern chase is a long chase.'" "Can't we increase our acceleration and so our speed?" Jak asked. "Yes, we'll have to do that, at least." Mr. Carver's voice was grim. He looked at Jon. "Step it up to two and a half, as soon as you're all in your seats. We'll stay there more of the time from now on, and we'll change the period to six in and two up." "How about one and a half for the two hours?" "We'll try it. If we sleep or nap more while we're at max, we ought to be able to stand it." "We're still almost ..." Jon figured rapidly at the computer, "... three weeks out of Terra, even at that increased speed." His father grimaced, while his wife and elder son uttered gasps of dismay. "I know. It'll be tough, but we've _got_ to win." But after a moment he looked first at his wife, than at Jak. "This is an order," he said seriously. "The minute any of you feel you can't take it any more, say so and we'll cut down, even if we do lose speed. I guess I went off half-cocked just now in saying that we had to win. Our health is more important...."