Even so, however, it was requiring a force-ray of great power to hold our rushing flier out from the huge planet. Though lesser than Jupiter's, its pull upon us was great, nevertheless. And now that we were passing the huge world so closely, it seemed to us with its vast rings and great family of whirling moons to be of universe-size itself, so mighty did it loom beside us. The great rings, of small thickness compared to their huge width and circle, were edge-on to us now, a million miles to the left, and we could see that they were in reality but vast swarms of countless meteors, great and small, whirling at great speed about Saturn and forming by their division three rings, the innermost a darker one. Yet despite their strange appearance and colossal size, it was not the great rings that held our interest so much in that moment as the cloud-hidden surface of Saturn itself. For even as in passing Mars and Jupiter, we were gripped with desire to veer in toward the planet and explore the strange wonders that might exist upon it, or upon its greater moons. But none suggested that thought now. All four of us knew that only the growing green spot of light, that was distant Neptune ahead, must be our goal. * * * * * As the flier raced on, almost passing the huge planet now, Randall uttered a swift exclamation, pointing ahead and to the left a little. At the same moment, though, I had seen the thing that had caught his eye--a small dark point growing with lightning swiftness as it rushed toward us; a great dark meteor, perhaps five hundred feet in diameter, rushing toward our flier, whirling far out from Saturn's rings in the same direction as those rings! Instantly, upon seeing it, I had turned more power into the ray that held us out from Saturn, and as we were pushed sidewise in the next moment by that increased power, the big meteor had flashed past us far to the left! And a moment later, I had caught sight of two similar meteors, one smaller than the other, rushing toward us in the same direction from ahead. But these I had seen soon enough to avoid collision.