Beside the Planeteers, who had discarded their Saturnian disguises, old Stilicho Keene peered forward, a haunting apprehension in his faded eyes. The space dog crouched at his feet.
Gunner Welk was at the eyepiece of the ‘scope, staring toward dim Erebus. The towering Mercurian turned to Thorn.
"Cheerly's ship isn't in sight, John,” he rumbled. “He must already have landed on Erebus."
Thorn's brown face contorted in agonized emotion.
"We should have overtaken him!” he cried, his voice raw and self-accusing. “If we'd put on a little more speed—"
"But boy, the Venture's been at top speed in all the long days since we left Saturn!” Stilicho quivered. “It's been like a nightmare voyage, with the power-chambers throbbing to the limit, and my crew getting more scared each day, and us sailin’ on toward God knows what on that world ahead!"
It had, indeed, seemed like a strange dream to all of them as their craft had, for days, crept out into the trackless, forbidding immensities. Stilicho's pirate crew had whispered fearfully, only the hope of rescuing their idolized girl leader keeping them from mutinying. An alien chill gripped all except John Thorn.
Thorn had become more and more feverishly anxious each day, as he thought of Jenk Cheerly speeding on with Lana to seize the precious radite — the radite whose taking would signal Lana's death and the launching of Trask's attack on the Alliance!
"Shall I try the spectro-telescope?” Gunner was asking. “We're near enough to Erebus for it to detect the radite."
Thorn nodded quickly. “The radite should show up clearly. I'll check our aura again for Cheerly's ship."