They saw a patch of light against the reddish sunglow.


"That beats me! For a minute I had a feeling—yes, I was right! It went straight into the Sun! Olana—!"

But she had seen, too. She was scarcely aware of Curt's fierce grip on her arm.


Directly in the center of the maroon Sun a tiny pinpoint of white had appeared. Even as they watched, it seemed to mushroom slowly outward.

"That was no meteor!" Curt exclaimed. "Whatever caused that explosion was travelling at the speed of light, and must have had tremendous bulk! Why ... I doubt if even Vulcan striking with its orbital velocity could cause such a display!"

For an hour they watched. At the end of that time the whitish glow had given no sign of receding; if anything, it had become ever so slightly larger. They stared, entranced with a new hope.