ia was restored. But it isn't _where_ we
are that is worrying me the most--we can fix our place in space
accurately enough by a few observations--it's _when_."

"That's right, too. Say we're two light-years away. You think maybe
we're two years older than we were ten minutes ago, then? That's
possible, of course, maybe probable: there's been a lot of discussion on
that theory. Now's a good time to prove or to disprove it. Let's snap
back to Tellus and find out."

"We'll do that, after a little more experimenting. You see, I had no
intention of giving us such a long push. I was going to throw the
switches over and back, but you know what happened. However, there's one
good thing about it--it's worth two years of anybody's life to settle
that relativity-time thing definitely, one way or the other."

"I'll say it is. But say, we've got a lot of power on our ultra-wave:
enough to reach Tellus, I think. Let's locate the sun and get in touch
with Samms."

"Let's work on these controls a little first, so we'll have something to
report. Out here's a fine place to try the ship out--nothing in the
way."

"All right with me. But I _would_ like to find out whether I'm two years
older than I think I am, or not!"

Then for hours they put the great super-ship through her paces, just as
test-pilots check up on every detail of performance of an airplane of
new and radical design. They found that the horrible vertigo could be
endured, perhaps in time even conquered as space-sickness could be
conquered, by a strong will in a sound body; and that their new
conveyance had possibilities of which even Rodebush had never dreamed.
Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their most
powerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star which they
knew to be Old Sol.

"Samms ... Samms." Cleveland spoke slowly and distinctly. "Rodebush and
Cleveland reporting from the 'Space-Eating Wampus', now directly in line
with Beta Ursae Minoris from the sun, distance about two point two light
years. It will take six banks of tubes on your tightest beam, LSV3, to
reach us. Barring a touch of an unusually severe type of space-sickness,
everything worked beautifully; even better than our calculations showed.
There's something we want to know right away--have we been gone four
hours and some odd minutes, or better than two years?"

He shut off the power, turned to Rodebush, and went on:

"Nobody knows how fast this ultra-wave