There was an instant in which the space-flier seemed to be jerking and flashing in wild aimless flight amid that swarm, as its striking force-rays pushed it now to one side and now to another, away from the asteroids about us. Were two of those rays to strike asteroids in opposite directions, balancing each other, the space-flier, instead of being pushed aside, would be crumpled to instant annihilation between the push of the two great rays, I knew, and we expected nothing but annihilation in that mad moment as we shot on. But after reeling to right and left with dizzy speed for a crazy instant, the asteroids of the swarm had vanished suddenly from about us as we shot out of that swarm! We had escaped, had escaped a death that for the moment had seemed certain to all of us, and that I had managed to evade by instinct and luck rather than by reason. [Illustration: _There was an instant in which the space-flier seemed to be jerking and flashing in wild aimless flight amid that swarm, as its striking force-rays pushed it now to one side and now to another, away from the asteroids about us._] "Close enough--that!" I exclaimed as we raced forward through the void on our straight course once more. "If we meet many more swarms like that, our chances of getting to Neptune are small!" Marlin shook his head. "We seemed gone that time," he admitted. "But I think we're almost out of the asteroidal region now--we should be crossing Jupiter's orbit in another twenty-four hours." "The space-flier's doing four million miles an hour now," I said, glancing over at the space-speed dial. "We're beginning to feel Jupiter's pull a little already."