"We'll follow them."
Doree was completely bewildered. "But you said your pile was stolen."
"It was. We won't need it."
"And all your instruments were smashed."
"We won't need them, either. Your father will tell them the planet's location. There's not much else he can do. Then—we'll follow them."
"One of us is crazy," Doree said, weakly.
"No. McKee and Talbott were just badly informed. They have an automatic ship and evidently don't know too much about it. You see, the electroparalysis ray has one basic element around which it functions—magnetism. The jolt they handed us was of such size that it created a magnetic field around their ship. If they had been going through an asteroid belt they would have been bombarded into oblivion. As it is they'll still be bombarded in a sense—by us."
"You mean—"
"The field envelopes their ship and trails out behind it like an invisible chain. They couldn't possibly have shoved us hard enough to get us clear of it. So when they pulled out, the Space Queen nosed right around and followed them." Mike grinned. "We're on their tail right now, just as surely as if they had us on a tow-rope."
"Then we can still help father!"