Gunner Welk grunted.
"And if we catch up to him,” he gritted, “I've got plans for what I'll do to that Uranian."
"Shall I cut some of the tubes now?” the old pirate asked nervously. “We're shaking now like we're fit to come apart."
"No! Leave all stern tubes on for utmost acceleration!” Thorn rapped, his haggard, worn, brown face stiff with desperate determination. ‘We'll either wreck this ship by back-blasting, or we'll overtake Cheerly — one of the two!"
Lana came silently to Thorn's side, looked up at him with a deep anxiety in her blue eyes.
"John, you must sleep a little,” she begged. “For days you've been toiling and worrying. You'll collapse unless you rest."
"Rest? How can I rest when the radite we've come through hell to get is millions of miles ahead of us!” Thorn said rawly.
* * *
As the next hours passed, the rocket-tubes of the Venture continued to roar unceasingly, the ship quivering and creaking sickeningly. Their speed was mounting to momentous heights — already they were traveling faster than the fastest ship in the system's history.
And still the stern tubes roared, the Venture's velocity accelerated. Erebus faded to a dim speck behind them, vanished. The sun-star was brighter and bigger ahead, and the yellow spark of Saturn was largening dead, ahead.