The sun rose. Cochrane noted the time, it was fourteen hours since sunset. The local day would be something more than an Earth-day in length. The manner of was familiar. There was a light in the sky. It strengthened. Then colors appeared, and to gold, and the out one after another. Presently the nearer to be black. There was light everywhere.
Alicia, white and haggard, waited to see what the light would show.
But there was everywhere. The hill-crests were clear, and the of the visible woodland, and the top of the ship's rose clear of curiously-tinted, slowly fog. But else in a sea of milk.
But the as the sun on it. Its top to nothingness. All this was commonplace. Even clouds in the sky were of well-known enough. Which was, when one about it, inevitable. This was a Sol-type sun, of the same and color as the star which the Earth. It had planets, like the sun of men's home world. There was a law—Bode's Law—which that must in such-and-such to each other. There must also be a law that in those must such-and-such of size to each other. There must be a law that must under ordinary conditions, and clouds at and times. It would be very if Earth were an to natural laws that other worlds obey.
So the of the to those who from the ship was more like the of an land on Earth than that of a planet.
The thinned. Gazing down, Cochrane[Pg 143] saw dark moving slowly past the ship's three metal landing-fins. They were the of the night, moving from their bed-ground to the inland. There were of hundreds, and of scores. There were occasional of only.
From overhead and through the Cochrane not see animals too clearly, but they were and ones. They moved sluggishly. Their numbers dwindled. He saw groups of no more than four or five. He saw single animals away.
He saw no more at all.
Then the touched the hills. The last of the dissolved, and there were the of two near the of the ship. Johnny Simms had killed them with his of the night. There was another a quarter-mile away.
Cochrane gave orders. Jones and Al not the ship. They were needed to it to Earth, with full knowledge of how to make other starships. Cochrane to Babs behind, but she would not stay. Bell had himself with a camera and film-tape a weapon, Cochrane his organization. Holden was needed for an gun. Alicia, and despairing, would not be left behind. Cochrane to Jamison.
"I don't think Johnny was killed," he said. "He'd a long way off it happened, anyhow. We've got to for him. With like those of last night, there'll naturally be other to on them. We might into anything. If we don't back, you to the lawyers I've had Spaceways. They'll rich off the job, but you'll end up rich, too."
"The best all around," said Jamison in a low tone, "would be to him to death."
"I agree," said Cochrane sourly. "But the don't stampede. Maybe they don't charge, but just to protect their and young, like musk-oxen. I'm he's alive, but I'm also we'll him."
He his group. Jones had walkie-talkies ready, for the purpose from space-suits nobody had used since Lunar City—and Holden took one to keep in touch by. They in the sling, two at a time.
Cochrane the two animals near the base[Pg 144] of the ship. They were the size of cattle, and they were like buffalo. They had branching, pointed, horns. They had hoofs, single hoofs, not cloven. They were not like any Earth animal. But and will appear in any of evolution. It would more that and and such as and and muscle-tissue should be as a of chemical inevitability. These had teeth and they were herbivorous. Bell them painstakingly.
"Somehow," said Cochrane, "I think they'd be food. If we can, we'll empty a freezing-locker and take a for tests."
Holden his unhappily. Alicia said nothing. Babs close her. They on.
They came to another animal a quarter-mile away. The ground was full of the and the of the herd. Bell again. They did not stop. Johnny Simms had been this way, of the carcass. He wasn't here now.
They the next in the ground. They saw two other creatures. It was evident, now, that these animals did not but only their ground when alarmed. Johnny Simms had when he into their groupings.
The last they saw was two hundred yards from the one of visible from the ship. Cochrane said with some grimness.
"If his had used to the darkness, he might have the and to into it to away from those animals."
And if Johnny Simms had not stopped he the and safety, he would be by now. There be nothing less than the of a man on a planet, not in what direction he had on his starting out. Even nearby, three out of four would be wrong. Farther away, the of on the way to the ship would be nonexistent.
Alicia saw a on the near the last carcass. It pointed toward the wood.
They the wood, and search looked hopeless. Then by purest they a place where Johnny had and headlong. He'd up and crazily. For some fifteen yards they him by the[Pg 145] small he'd in his flight. Then there were no more such growths. All of his were lost. But they on.
There were everywhere, of which they only a small part they had been city-dwellers on Earth. There was one place where trees like banyans, and it was to them. They aside. There was another spot where trees like a cathedral-like atmosphere, and it an to speak. But Holden reported in the walkie-talkie, and Jones and Al and Jamison that all so was well.
They a of voices, and they that it might be a of Johnny Simms' causing. But when they the place there was silence. Only, there were hundreds of everywhere. They not catch a of a single one of the nests' inhabitants, but they that they were at from under and around branches.
Cochrane looked indeed. In cold blood, he that Johnny Simms had left the ship in the of with which a little boy will away from home to his parents. Quite possibly he had only to go out into the night and wait near the ship until he was missed. But he'd himself among the unknown beasts. He'd gone into panic. Now he was indeed.
But one not to search for him it was hopeless. Cochrane not doing any less than to search as long as Alicia had hope. She might on indefinitely.
They the faint, distant, of a shot.
Holden's voice reported it in the walkie-talkie. Cochrane to Alicia and a in turn. He was relieved. It looked like would end in a fashion. The party from the ship toward the of the other sound.
In an hour Cochrane was about to fire again. But they the rat-tat-tat of firing. It no nearer, but it only be Johnny Simms.
Cochrane and Holden together for to Johnny. Bell took pictures.
Again they toward where the had been fired. Again they on for a long time. Seemingly, Johnny had moved away from them as they him.[Pg 146] They a hill, and there was a with the of water in it, and they saw that here the land very toward the sea, and the sea was in view. It was and it toward the most of horizons. Between them and the sea there was only low-growing stuff, and sparse. There was underfoot—a sand. Only here and there did the dry-seeming higher than their heads.
More shots. Between them and the sea. Cochrane and Holden again.
"What the devil's the with the fool?" Holden irritably. "He we're coming! Why doesn't he still or come to meet us?"
Cochrane shrugged. That was him too. They pressed forward, and Holden exclaimed. "That looks like a man! Two men!"
Cochrane the of something about, ahead. It looked like flesh. It was the size of a man. It vanished. Another into view and out of sight. They did not see the newcomers.
"He something like that, where we landed," said Cochrane grimly. "We'd hurry!"
They did hurry. There was a last of shooting. It was fire. It is not wise to shoot on if one's is limited, Johnny Simms' for part of a second. It stopped short. He couldn't have so a burst. He was out of bullets.
They ran.
When they near him, a set up. Things away. Large things. Birds the size of men. They Johnny Simms screaming.
They came to the very beach, on which foam-tipped in normal grandeur. The was save for a tint. Johnny Simms was out on the beach, in the open. He was down. He had his gun at something and was weaponless. He on the sand, shrieking. There were four ungainly, like Cornish Game at him. Two ran away at of the humans. Two others remained. Then they fled. One of them halted, back, and took a last at Johnny Simms it again.
Holden fired, and missed. Cochrane ran toward the kicking, Johnny Simms. But Alicia got there first.[Pg 147]
He was a object. His had been almost away in the time since his last of shots. There were on his flesh. After all, the of a bird as tall as a man is not a to be despised. Johnny Simms would have been to death but for the party from the ship. He had been and by a of the ostrich-sized at dawn. A cooler-headed man would have still and killed some of them, then the would either have away or their fellows. But Johnny Simms was not cool-headed. He had a career of being a rich man's little boy. Now he'd had a great and an narrow to the nerves of a normal man. To Johnny Simms, the was catastrophic.
He not walk, and the was too great to him. Holden reported by walkie-talkie, and Jones to one of the animals Johnny had killed and put it in a for the purpose, and then the ship and land by the sea. It a proposal. Johnny was surely not wounded.
But that meant time to wait. Alicia sat by her husband, him. Holden moved along the beach, the that had come ashore. He up one more in its than any of the pearl-making of Earth. This neither in the the cone-shaped of Earth mollusks. It in a doubly-curved spiral, so that the result was an extraordinary, lustrous, sphere. Bell with as he it with pains to all the colors just right.
Cochrane and Babs moved along the beach also. It was not possible to be apprehensive. Cochrane talked largely. Presently he was saying with satisfaction:
"The chemical here are to be the same! It's a new world, than the planet. Those last night—if they're good food-stuff—will make this a place like the old west, and the pioneers! This is a new Earth! Everything's so nearly the same—."
"I never," Babs, "heard of on Earth."
He at her. He and up a of the beach stuff. It was not blue. The tiny, sea-broken were ordinary and rock. They would[Pg 148] have to be. Yet there was a blueness—The were very much smaller than the white and and ones. Cochrane looked closely. Then he blew. All the out of his hand except—at last—one grain. It was white. It greasily. Cochrane moved four and his hand in the sea. He to wet the sand-grain. It would not wet.
He to laugh.
"I did a once," he told Babs, "about the old diamond-mines. Ever of them? They used to diamonds in which was as hard as rock. Here, goes out from the land to under the waves. This is a diamond, out by the sea! This is the last thing we need!" Then he looked at his watch. "We're on the air in two hours and a half! Now we've got what we want! Let's go have Holden tell Jones to hurry!"
But Babs suddenly,
"Jed! What of life am I going to lead with you? Here we are, and—nobody can see us—and you don't notice!"
Cochrane was penitent. In fact, they had to the beach to join the others when the space-ship appeared as a gleam, high in the air, and then came with it to settle a quarter-mile inland.
Bell had a picture of the diamond by the time the ground was for them to re-enter the ship. The way he it, against a which had nothing by which its size be estimated, the little white looked like a Kohinoor. It was two set to base, and he got color-flashes from it. And Jamison, forewarned, took pictures from the air of the blue-sand areas. They the the one diamond explained.
The was successful. It with a four-minute in which the of were with delicacy, and it was proved—to an audience waiting to look the stars—that only Greshham's Intestinal Emollient allowed the to make full use of vitamins, proteins, and the very foundation-substances which needed for perfect health. There the approach to this planet, of the great beast-herds on the plains, views of luxuriant, foliage, the of animals as they came at to their drinking-place,[Pg 149] and there was an all-too-brief of the blue-tinted which the last film-clip of all to be diamondiferous.
Cochrane's direction of this was almost inspired. The views of the animal were calculated to make any of his audience think in terms of and adventure—with perfect personal safety, of course!—and of steaks, and roasts. The more on Earth might mignon. The diamond with its glitterings, of course, of another sort.
There were four cut into these views, the last was upon a view Bell had taken of the sunset-colors. And it might have that the television audience would the of the new world as pictured with the product praised. But the public was well up against nowadays. It was not deceived. As usual, it only itself.
But there was no about the that there was a new and fit for habitation. That was true. And the places where happy plans for his neighbor to move there. But the more people would to think that it might be going to, for themselves.
The ship took off two hours after the broadcast. Part of that time was taken up with with on Earth. Cochrane had this for the broadcast-program in which the audience the problems as well as the of the star-voyagers. Cochrane wanted to to Earth. So as television was concerned, it would be unwise. The ship and its would travel without a of sponsors. But for once, Cochrane with Holden.
"We're back," he told Babs, "because if we keep on, people will accept our as just another of escape-entertainment. They'll have the quality of 'You Win a Million' and the lottery-shows. They'll be to about but to think of doing anything about. We're going to make the series short, in order to make it more factual. We won't it out for its entertainment-value until it else."[Pg 150]
"No," said Babs. She put her hand in his. She'd it necessary to him, now and then.
So the ship started home. And it would not return direct to Earth—or Lunar City—for a very reason. Cochrane meant to have all his up landing. They another or two across, and some be to more if one of the parties—Spaceways, Inc.—was not available when it like being available. The other parties would be more anxious.
So the astrogation-conference did not with a direct return to Earth, but with a small sol-type star not too out of the direct line. The Pole Star have been visited, but it was a star. Cochrane had no scientific curiosity. His approach was that of a man of business. He did the business.
There was, of course, a pause not too from the second planet—the of the beasts. They put out a plastic with a Dabney it. It would in indefinitely. The would for not less than twenty years. It would as a beacon, a highway, a through space for other ships to visit the third world now available to men. Ultimately, be made.
Jones was already ground-level Dabney installations. There would be Dabney from star to star. Along them, as along tubes, ships would travel at toward destinations. True, at times they not be used of the of starting-points and landing-stations. But with attention to scheduling, it would be a to for something close to commuters' service star-clusters. He all this to Cochrane, with Holden in.
"Oh, surely!" said Cochrane cynically. "And you'll have tax-payers you make money. You'll be out of existence. Were you that Spaceways would this you're planning, without else in on the of it?"
Jones looked at him, dead-pan. But he was annoyed.
"I want some money," he said. "I we this thing set up, and then I myself a ship and for doing some original work. I'd like to[Pg 151] work something out and not have to sell the publicity-rights to it!"
"I'll it," promised Cochrane. "I've got our lawyers setting up a right now. You're going to as many as you can on this field, and them all to Spaceways. And Spaceways is going to them all to a Space Development Association, a of Chamber of Commerce for all the planets, and all the in are going to to on it. And it will be criticism, and it will have the public at its heart, and it will be and it will be as as hell! And the more it is, the more it will have to take in to allow for its inefficiency—and for your it has to give us a cut of its gross! And meanwhile we'll ours from the we've on and publicized. We've got customers. We've up a market for our planets!"
"Eh?" said Jones in astonishment.
"We," said Cochrane, "rate as and therefore and governments of the two on Earth. When the Moon-colony was formed, there were laws to take of nation and so on. Whoever on a a full is its and government—until other arrive. Then the government is all of them, but the with the first. We own two planets. Nice planets. Glamorized planets, too! So I've already for the hotel-concessions on the world."
Holden had with uneasiness. Now he said doggedly:
"That's not right, Jed! I don't mind making money, but there are that are more important! Millions of people home—hundreds of millions of devils—spend their to death of their jobs, not to for more than subsistence! I want to do something for them! People need hope, Jed, to be healthy! Maybe I'm a fool, but the needs more than I need money!"
Cochrane looked patient.
"What would you suggest?"
"I think," said Holden heavily, "that we ought to give what we've got to the world. Let the governments of the[Pg 152] world take over and emigration. There's not one but will be to do it ..."
"Unfortunately," said Cochrane, "you are perfectly right. They would! There have been and such for generations. I'm very much that just what you will be done to some or other on other as they're up. But on the there will be hotels. The rich will want to go there to stay, to sight-see, to ride, to hunt, to ski, and to in over volcanoes. The will need to be staffed. There will be and and hunters. It will cost too much to food from Earth, so will be started. It will be to food from farmers than to it with help. So the farmers will be independent. There will have to be stores to supply them with what they need, and with what they don't need but want. From the minute the up as a resort, there will be jobs for hundreds of people. It won't be long there are jobs for thousands. There'll be a man-shortage there. Anybody who wants to can go there to work, and if he doesn't go there a certified, environment, but just a good job with possible or ... That's the we want! Presently the won't be hotels. They'll just be the normal that that there are and people moving about among them! Then it won't be a tourist-planet, and will be a nuisance. It'll be home for one of a of people! And they'll have every of it themselves!"
Holden said uncomfortably:
"It'll be slow ..."
"It'll be sure!" Cochrane. "The settlements in America were until the people started to work for themselves! Look at this we're leaving! How many people will come to work that diamond mine! How many will to supply them with meat? How many will farm to supply the and the with other food? And how many others will be along to stores and ..." He an gesture. "You're of people to move to the to make more room on Earth. You'd who'd move the long-hairs said it was wise and the government paid for it. I'm of who'll and possibly cheat[Pg 153] and a little to jobs where they can take of their families the way they want to! I want people to move to what they want in of any at them. Now shoo! I'm busy!"
Jones asked mildly:
"At what?"
"The latest deal," said Cochrane impatiently, "is for to for oil. The are out. Water-power is pending—not for cash, but a cut—and—."
Holden said uneasily:
"There's one other thing, Jed. All your plans and all your still be if on Earth they think we might to Earth. Remember Dabney that? And some or other with him?"
Cochrane grinned.
"There's a diamond-mine. There are of what people will call cattle. There's food and riches. There's and adventure. There's room to do things! Nobody keep political office if he to keep his from food and cash and adventure—even by when they send Cousin Albert out to see if he can make a there. We've got to take against germs, of course. We'll have trouble them. But we'll manage!"
Al called from the control-room. The ship was aligned, he thought, for their next stopping-place. He wanted Jones to the booster-circuit and it over. Jones went.
A little later there was the of a that was not a sound, but was all through one. The result was not satisfactory. The ship was still in empty space, and the nearest star was still a star. There was a of the booster-jump. Still not too good. Thereafter the ship drove, and jumped, and jumped, and drove.
Jamison came to where Cochrane communicator. He waited. Cochrane said:
"Dammit, I won't agree! I want twelve or I take up another offer!—What?"
The last was to Jamison. Jamison said uneasily:
"We another planet. About Earth-size. Ice-caps. Clouds. Oceans. Seas. Even rivers! But there's no green on it! It's all rocks!"[Pg 154]
Cochrane concentratedly. Then he said impatiently:
"The people home said that life couldn't have started on all the for it. They said there must be where life hasn't reached, though they're perfectly for it. Make a landing and try the air with like we did on the planet."
He to the communicator.
"You reason," he to a man on far-away Earth, "that all this is only on paper. But that's the only you're a at it! I'll that Jones will on ships that meet our of space-worthiness—or government standards, are strictest—for ten of your company stock plus twelve cash of the cost of each ship. Nothing less!"
He the make the louder that was the of against gravity.
The world was lifeless. The ship had on stone, when Cochrane looked out the control-room ports. There had been trouble a space on which the three landing-fins would a foundation. It had taken an hour of to such a place and to settle on it. Then the look of was appalling.
The landing-spot was a of what to be polygons, to the Giants' Causeway of Ireland on Earth. There was no anywhere. The which on other soil, here harshly. There was no soil. There was no life to at and make in which less minute life live. The of the to colors everywhere. The colors were as else but on Earth's moon. There was no at all.
That was somehow shocking. The ship's company and stared, but there be no comment. There was a vast, dark sea to the left of the landing-place. Inland there were and valleys. But the were not sloped. There were of at the of their cliffs, but it was detritus. No of anywhere. No of grass. No moss. No leaf. Nothing.
The air was empty. Nothing flew. There were clouds, to be sure. The sky was blue, though a than Earth's, there was no to to dust, or to by its own decay.[Pg 155]
The sea was active. Great themselves toward the and upon it with violence. They into of foam. But the broke—too quickly—and left the water dark again. Far the line of there were dark clouds, and rain in masses, and flashed. But it was a of which was somehow more than the and moon of Earth.
Cochrane looked out very carefully. Alicia came to him, a hesitant.
"Johnny's asleep now. He didn't sleep at first, and while we were out of he was unhappy. But he off to sleep the we landed. He needs rest. Could we—just here until he up on sleep?"
Cochrane nodded. Alicia at him and away. There was still the mark of a on her cheek. She to where her husband needed her. Holden said dourly:
"This world's useless. So is her husband."
"Wait till we check the air," said Cochrane absently.
"I've it," Holden told him indifferently. "I in the port and at the door. I didn't die, so I opened the door. There is a of stone. That's all. The air's perfectly breathable. The ocean's all gases, and are soluble. If they weren't, they couldn't be poisonous."
"Mmmmmm," said Cochrane thoughtfully.
Jamison came over to him.
"We're not going to here, are we?" he asked. "I don't like to look at it. The moon's enough, but at least nothing live there! Anything live here. But it doesn't! I don't like it!"
"We'll here at least while Johnny has a nap. I do want Bell to take all the pictures he can, though. Probably not for broadcast, but for reasons. I'll need pictures to up a deal."
Jamison away. Holden said without interest:
"You'll make no with this planet! This is one you can do what you like with! I don't want any part of it!"
Cochrane shrugged.
"Speaking of you don't want any part of—what about Johnny Simms? Speaking as a psychiatrist, what will that of being in the dark all night and nearly being to death—what will it do to him?[Pg 156] Are the way they are they can't reality, or they've had to?"
Holden away the incredible, at the storm. There was under many of cloud. The sea and and was free of again. Because there were no plankton, no animalcules, no tiny, gluey, beings in it to give the water the property of making which endured. There was thunder, in the storm, and no ear it. Over a world there was which no saw. There was night in which nothing rested, and was now, and nothing sang.
"Look at that, Jed," said Holden heavily. "There's a none of us wants to face! We're all more or less from what we are is reality. That is real, and it makes me small and futile. So I don't like to look at it. Johnny Simms didn't want to what one up to face. It him futile. So he a role than realist."
Cochrane nodded.
"But his of last night put him into a very that he couldn't dodge! Will it him?"
"Probably," said Holden without any at all in his voice. "They used to put in snake-pits. When they were people who'd taken to for from reality, it them go to to from the snakes. Shock-treatments used to be used, later, for the same effect. We're too soft to use either now. But Johnny gave himself the works. The are that from now on he will want to be alone for an instant, and he will again to be angry with or make angry. You him and he ran away, and it was bad! So from now on I'd that Johnny will be a very well-behaved little boy in a man's body." He said very indeed, "Alicia will be very happy, taking of him."
A moment later he added:
"I look at that set-up the way I look at the yonder."
Cochrane said nothing. Holden liked Alicia. Too much. It would not make any at all. After a moment, though, he the subject.
"I think this is a good bet, this planet. You think it's no good. I'm going to talk to the companies. They in tanks, and in vats, and[Pg 157] they produce an amount of food. But they have to the and they have a job sterile. Here's a place where they can in the oceans! They can in lakes, out-of-doors! Suppose they use this world to of but useful foodstuff—in a way—wild? It will be good return-cargo material for ships taking out to our other planets.—I suppose," he added meditatively, "they'll ship it in bulk, dried."
Holden blinked. He was out of his depression.
"Jed!" he said warmly. "Tell that to the world—prove that—and—people will stop being afraid! They won't be of they can to the stars! Jed—Jed! This is the thing the world needs most of all!"
But Cochrane grimaced.
"Maybe," he it. "But I've the stuff. I think it's foul! Still, if people want it ..."
He to the to the of Earth, to out if there was any special data they would need to pass on the proposal.
And so presently the ship took off for home. It on the moon first, and Johnny Simms was into a space-suit and transferred to Lunar City, where he live without being to Earth. He wouldn't there. Alicia that. They'd move to the as soon as were built. Maybe some day they'd travel to the of the beasts. Johnny would be again. He was anxious, now, to have people like him, and with him, and not under any be angry with him or him away from them. Alicia would now have a full-time people from taking of him.
But the ship to Earth. And on Earth Jamison the leading television of all time, and the and the opportunities of star-travel. Bell was his and co-star. Presently Jamison privately to Cochrane that he and Bell would need to take off on another of with some other expedition. Neither of them to retire, though[Pg 158] they were well-off enough. They were stock-holders in the Spaceways company, which them a living.
Cochrane put Spaceways, Inc., into full operation. He against personal publicity, but he himself to death. He hours every day in haggling, and in the of booby-trapped proposals. His lawyers that he needed an office—he did—and presently he had four and there an entire of under him. One day his told him that somebody had waited two hours past appointment-time to see him.
It was Hopkins, who had not been to his dinner to to a from Cochrane. Hopkins was still as as ever. It was only that Cochrane was more so.
It Cochrane up. He stormed, to Babs, and and or transferred enterprises, and for a more satisfactory way of life.
They went, in time, to the Spaceways terminal, to take ship for the stars. The was improvised, but it was busy. Already eighteen ships a day away from there in Dabney fields. Eighteen others arrived. Jones was already off in a ship according to his own notions. Officially he was doing for Spaceways, Inc., but actually nobody told him what to do. He with and sometimes got more results. Holden was already off of Earth. He was on the of the beasts, acting as on the cases of who there and they do as they pleased, of being by economic to do otherwise.
But this day Babs and Cochrane together into the of the Spaceways terminal. There were people everywhere. The hiring-booths of on the three now under took for jobs on those worlds, and how long one had to to work in order to have one's paid. Chambers of Commerce were prepared to give to entrepreneurs. There were reservation-desks, and freight-routing desks, and tourist-agency ...
"Hmmm," said Cochrane suddenly. "D'you know, I[Pg 159] haven't of Dabney in months! What to him?"
"Dabney?" said Babs. She beamed. Women in the saw the she was wearing. They did not her—Cochrane had her off the air—but they her. She very indeed. "Dabney?—Oh, I had to use my own there, Jed. You were so busy! After all, he was scientific to Spaceways. He did pay Jones cold cash for fame-rights. When else got so much more than just the scientific theory, he got in a terrible state. His family Doctor Holden, and we it. He's right this way!"
She pointed. And there was a plate-glass office out from the of the concourse. It was elevated, so that it was conspicuous. There was a designed but visible under the leading to it. The said; "H. G. Dabney, Scientific Consultant."
Dabney sat at an in plain view of all the thousands who had out and the millions who would ship out in time to come. He thought, visibly. Presently he up and up and the office which was as eye-catching as a gold-fish bowl of equal size in the same place. He to see someone in the concourse. He have Cochrane, of course. But he did not.
He bowed. He was a great man. Undoubtedly he returned to his wife each that he had done the world a great by it to him.
Cochrane and Babs on. Their was taken of. The of a ship for the stars, these days, was much less and more than it used to be when a moon-rocket took off.
When they were in the ship, Babs a of relief.
"Now," she said zestfully, "now you're retired, Jed! You don't have to worry about anything! And so now I'm going to try to make you worry about me—not worry about me, but think about me!"
"Of course," said Cochrane. He her with affection. "We'll take a good long vacation. First on the planet. Then we'll a house in the of Diamondville ..."[Pg 160]
"Jed!" said Babs accusingly.
"There's a population there already," said Cochrane, apologetically. "It won't be long a local television station will be logical. I was just thinking, Babs, that after we with loafing, I start a program there. Really stuff. Not commercial. And of with the Dabney it be to Earth if any wanted it. I think they would ..."
Presently the ship with Babs and Cochrane among its took off to the stars. It was a perfectly flight. After all, star-travel was almost six months old. It wasn't a any longer.
Operation Outer Space was old stuff.
