At first they planned to be gone a month. But after landing on one of the Centaurian planets, four and a half light-years away, the tremendous excitement that gripped them burned away thoughts of their parents, who must certainly be suffering agonies because of their disappearance. Beyond Centauri were other stars—and others beyond them.
They never tired as the sub-etheric warp hurled them through the dark reaches of infinity at several times light-speed. For the first time, they were living.
By this time, the alarm had gone throughout the known universe. Two boys on the loose. Carl, an expert at Morse Code, deciphered the wild dit-dit-da's.
"Boy, are they looking for us!"
Rex's deep chest came out. "We'll be pretty famous when we get back, I guess." The thought pleased him. "Those smart alecs that always picked on me at school will change their tune."
"Ah, Rex, nobody ever picked on you." Carl was slimmer than Rex, though a year older. He added, "All you had to do was join in the fun and you'd have got along swell."
A dangerous flush crept up from Rex's thick, powerful neck. "I say they picked on me."
Carl said hastily, "Okay, okay." He dropped the subject. Sometimes Rex could be pretty touchy. But he was handy to have around and most of the time was a good guy. Both fellows had studied celestial navigation and mechanics, but Rex had it all over Carl when it came to handling the small ship, so Carl let him take the controls most of the time.
Suddenly the ship had gone haywire. Neither Carl nor Rex was technician enough to understand that the etheric warp engines had been overdriven. The engines, down to the last accumulator cell, exploded with a mighty, tearing roar that blew gaping holes in bulkheads, deck-plates, and overheads. Carl was knocked out, but Rex held on.