"Yes," she admitted, "it was about over there." She indicated the spot with an outthrust arm. "About a hundred yards, I should judge."
"Exactly," he agreed. "Well, young lady, our lives, and far more, depend upon our reaching that exact line in space immediately."
"I don't know what you are talking about, but even so, how can we make it? I'm not a rocket."
"It's difficult, I admit, but we must. Now hold on tight to my arm, and press your feet firmly against the wall of the ship." She obeyed.
"Now when I count three, shove off violently, and pray that we're going straight. Are you game?"
She stiffened; then, very slowly, "All right; start counting."
"Good girl," Grant said approvingly. "One—two—th-r-ee-ee!"
They flexed their legs in perfect unison. And shoved off.
Out into the blackness of space they shot, lost to all sense of motion: yet the hull of the space-flier, dimly gleaming in the thin light of the far off sun, retreated from them with terrifying swiftness.