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As though the ship itself had heard him, the interior be-came dimly lighted by the sparkle of the crystal hull. Eve explained why this was. “Our monitors are controlling the molecules of the Little Dipper’s hull,” she said, “merely to test it. It is responding perfectly, otherwise they would halt our progress and cancel the trip. “As I have said,” she continued, “beyond the orbit of Mercury they can no longer help us, leaving the control entirely to its automatic system. They will keep testing up to the orbit of Mercury, and from then on these few dials and buttons alone will tell us how we are doing.” «rar 4 1 n xart velocity now?” he asked her. “Wait, Adam; wait until you hear music. Then you will know our speed. You can look through a section of the hull and see our monitor ship. They will clear a window to our right,” Eve told him. The window appeared almost at once, and some distance away Adam saw an elegant cigar-shaped craft, the same one he had seen in Andromeda, the one which had escorted him to Venus. Then a huge sphere, bright and massive, slid behind them and out of sight. Adam thrilled to the sight. “What was that, Eve?” “That was Venus. Did you see how fast it slipped behind? There, there comes the music. We have attained fifty million ad m1 1 tn miles per hour, Adam. Oh, glory! From this velocity we begin soon to slow down.” Fifty million miles per hour, Adam reflected. He kept very still, thinking he would prevent any disturbance to the Little Dipper. One smallest error, one miscalculation of anything in the system of the little craft, and they would be atomized into thin smoke. He was not alarmed, however. The music was not only en- thralling; it was familiar. He had heard it before. Ah, yes! Not long ago on Venus itself had he not been with someone, a beauty called Launie, whose face now smiled vividly in his memory? What a delightful memory! What an exquisite mo- whose face smiled in now 192 SON OF THE SUN “We have been on our voyage an hour, Eve. What is our tow apr