"No clear ether yet, I don't suppose," the captain remarked, as he rolled up a chart and tossed it aside.
"No let-up for a second; they're not taking any chances at all. Found out where we are? Alsakan ought to be hereabouts somewhere, hadn't it?"
"I've got our coördinate roughly. Alsakan would be fairly close for a ship, but it's out of the question for us. Nothing much inhabited around here, either, apparently; to say nothing of being civilized. Scarcely one to the block. Don't think I've been out here before. Have you?"
"Off my beat entirely. How long do you figure it'll be before it's safe for us to blast off?"
"Can't start blasting until your plates are clear. Anything we can detect can detect us as soon as we start putting out power."
"We may be in for a spell of waiting then——" VanBuskirk broke off suddenly and his tone changed to one of tense excitement. "Great blasts of fire! Look at that!"
"Blinding blue blazes!" Kinnison exclaimed, staring into the plate. "With all macro-universal space and all the time in eternity to play around in, the blind god of chance had to bring her back here and now!"
For there, right in their laps, not a hundred miles away, lay the Brittania and her two pirate captors!
"Better go free, hadn't we?" whispered VanBuskirk.
"Daren't!" grunted Kinnison. "At this range they'd spot us in a split second. Acting like a hunk of loose metal's our only chance. We'll be able to dodge any flying chunks, I think. There she goes!"