Broster jumped to the controls, pulled the lever that should shunt the ship to one side. But as the nose turned away, and the great mass of her began slowly to describe a long arc in relation to her former course, another exclamation came from Kendall: "They're spreading out to stop us!" Broster cursed, reset the course. The planet was dead ahead now. "Trapped!" he fumed. "The red planet ahead of us, and those ships behind us. What do they want?" "It might be well to stop," Dr. Seaward put in. "They may want to look us over and nothing more. Unless we arouse suspicion by resisting now." "And they might steal the ship under our noses, too," protested Arundell. Broster shook his head. "There cannot be a question of letting unknown intelligences enter this craft or hold it. We can't afford to take chances, even if the notion that other world dwellers are necessarily enemies is silly. We've got to assume that everything we see is dangerous until proven harmless or friendly. Those are our first orders: do not surrender the ship." "Then we run for it?" asked Seaward. "We do. Our offensive weapons may be better than theirs but it's another chance we're not taking. The very fact that we're outnumbered makes retreat the order of the day." "Look there!" exclaimed Arundell. "They're beaming past us!" One of the strange oval, multi-ported, oddly-ornamented, crimson craft had just shot a red beam alongside of the _Astralite_. Not touching it, but passing by, as if to show that, whenever they cared, this fleet could annihilate the intruder. Then, all the other ships surrounding them began to flash beams. Crossing and criss-crossing all about them save in front. "Look," exclaimed Kendall. "You can see those beams as if they were in air." "Marvellous and impossible," groaned Seaward. "We've run into a swarm of impossibilities today. Some philosopher once remarked that in eternity everything was possible--in fact, everything that could possibly happen has happened. It looks as if we're running into bits of that now. I should have taken my daughter's advice and let a younger man come this trip." "It may be impossible, but it's so," broke in Broster. "And deadly. We're getting out of here fast." He turned to the controls and a moment later the _Astralite_ began to accelerate. There was a limit to the speed they could reach as they would have to shunt again soon to keep from smashing against the red planet. Unless-- "Why not?" asked Arundell, following Broster's evident thoughts. "They apparently want us to land on the planet. So we do go for it, then shunt aside at the last minute." * * * * * At first, it seemed as if the _Astralite_ would leave the others behind, but it was soon apparent that the unknown ships could keep up with her. In fact were closing in.