"Is getting closer," I finished, "every minute. You have undoubtedly looked at the ship's hull to make sure there are no wires or coils on it?" Some of Major Gilchrist's cockiness had oozed out of him. He said uncertainly, "Y-yes, I did. The entire hull is thickly coated with some glutinous substance--" * * * * * Oh, golly! That was one thing which hadn't occurred to me. I had just sort of taken it for granted that the fuel I had dumped would have whipped away into space. Silly logic on my part, for I've run the spaceways long enough to realize that nothing ever floats away in the void; anything you chuck from a spacevessel shares your velocity and hangs right along by your side. But I made the finest dramatic act of my life; gasped, and clutched at my forehead wildly. "The oil! Migod, the oil-tanks have burst! Captain Hanson, we're doomed!" And the skipper, too, came through nobly. He moaned and raced to the wall thermo, whirled from it frantically. "A hundred an' two!" he bleated, "an' gettin' hotter every minute! We'll be stewed like peas in a pot!" Gilchrist's lips turned a sickly bistre. He ran his tongue over them and faltered, "But my computations--" "Were wrong!" I told him. "Dead wrong! Take a look at these other figures. Lancelot Biggs' figures!" And as I thrust the sheet of paper into his fingers, I reached out and elbowed the audio button that establishes a complete circuit of every chamber aboard ship. Instantly the babel of angry, frightened, complaining voices burst upon our ears. The cries of hot and terrified men demanding help from the bridge. "--can't stand it a moment longer," came the cry of Enderby. "Change course, Skipper!" And from the engine-room the roaring blast of Chief Garrity: "Ye've no richt t' drive us t' death like this, Captain. Change coorrse, sirrr, or by the saints, there'll be _moootiny_!" And that did it! Major Gilchrist's nerve collapsed. His self-assurance slipped from him like a robe from a strip-teaser's torso, and all of a sudden he was no longer a tough, gimlet-eyed, hard-boiled efficiency expert, but a nervous and very frightened Earth-lubber caught in the grip of forces too strong for him. "Into the Sun!" he babbled wildly. "The _Sun_? Oh, I mustn't die like this! Do something, somebody! Captain, you must change the course. Use the other set of co-ordinates. I was wrong--" That was all I waited to hear. I shoved the new set of figures into Todd's hands, shoved him toward the door. "Get going, Dick! There's no time to waste! We--"