Force, was continually
turning. The pull of the invisible orb was dragging her slowly but
irresistibly out of her line.
"There's nothing for it but this," said Redgrave, putting out his hand
to the signal-board, and signalling to Murgatroyd to put the engines to
their highest capacity. "You see, dear, our greatest danger is this: we
had to exert such a tremendous lot of power getting away from Jupiter
and Saturn, that we haven't any too much to spare, and if we have to
spend it in counteracting the pull of this dead sun, or whatever it is,
we may not have enough of what I call the R. fluid left to get home
with."
"I see," she said, staring with wide-open eyes at the needle. "You mean
that we may not have enough to keep us from falling into one of the
planets or perhaps into the Sun itself. Well, supposing the dangers are
equal, this one is the nearest, and so I guess we've got to fight it
first."
"Spoken like a good American!" he said, putting his arm across her
shoulders and looking at once with infinite pride and infinite regret at
the calm, proud face which the glory of resignation had adorned with a
new beauty.
She bowed her head and then looked away again so that he should not see
that there were tears in her eyes. He took his hand from her shoulder
and stared in silence down at the needle.
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