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.
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."
We were, indeed, already deviating a little to the right from our straight course in answer to the gravitational pull of the tremendous mass of Jupiter, looming ever greater now ahead and to the right. We were to pass it by some fifteen million miles, more than twice the distance at which we had passed Mars, but the colossal planet, larger than all the other planets of the sun together, was already attracting us strongly despite our terrific speed and momentum. For the time being, though, we gave it but scant attention, concentrating our attention, as we did, upon the watch for farther asteroids, since we had not yet emerged from their great belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Sleepy and weary as we were from our hours upon the watch, we dared not relax from that watch, and so Whitely and Marlin and Randall still kept up their constant survey of the surrounding void, while I held the flashing space-flier's controls, turning more and more of our generators' power into the great force-ray that was hurtling us on. We had not dared to use the generators' power too swiftly upon our start, lest the too great acceleration kill us, despite our shock-absorbing apparatus. But steadily our speed, already colossal, was mounting, and we were racing on through the gulf toward the distant green spot of light that was Neptune.