A full, solid, nerve-breaking hour they waited, and the men in Lane's ship waited, wondering.
"Try it!" snapped Lane.
The ship leaped into motion, driving to one side.
Snatchers raced out and caught the fleeing ship, dragged it back, and again they went through the pushing, pulling, tossing program. And then again they stopped with a few, final perfunctory pokes and shoves.
"They're catmen, all right," snarled Lane.
The rest of the Solar Guard came up, and once more they tried to break through the screen to free Lane's ship. Lane shook his head. "Pilot. How long under superdrive before we hit the speed of light?"
"Seven minutes."
"Then drive straight down. I don't think any beam can exceed the speed of light. Once we get up there, they can't reach forward after us, at least."
Lane's ship dropped. And the catmen followed, maintaining their distance with superior balance and accuracy. A minute passed. Two. Three. Four. Five. And then at an even six, a snatcher reached forward and took Lane's ship by the empennage and shook it enough to rend a few seams.
"O.K., cut it," he said wearily. "I wonder what they want of us beside to play cat-and-mouse?"