gone, except that remaining in
his lungs. The outer hatch swung open, admitting the penetrating cold
of complete vacuum.

The trapped industrialist exhaled his breath, counted three and dived
into the tank.

His body sank and the atoms of helium temporarily left their random
state with the influx of heat, but returned quickly as the magnetic
field took up the slack, vaporizing the ammonium salts. All was quiet
again--

The human brain and the secondary laws of thermodynamics had combined
to thwart the will of a relentless universe.

Edwin Dollard, financial genius and murderer in his time, had entered
into a state of suspended animation from which only an equal
intelligence could ever awaken him.

* * * * *

The planets and their satellites revolved in their orbits for
uncounted centuries, until even the fixed stars shifted and formed new
constellations. During this long almost interminable period, no
man-made vessels disturbed the equilibrium between the worlds; no
man-made radiations penetrated the empty spaces of the solar system. A
wanderer from Procyon or Sirius, entering the neighborhood of Sol,
might well have suspected he had found nine lifeless spheres pursuing
a futile and purposeless course about their flaming parent.

So immutable however are the laws of celestial mechanics, once set
into operation, that Dollard's ship varied not a centimeter in its
elliptical path during those endless dragging years.

But organic life, by its very definition, is highly viable, highly
persistent; it is capable of protracted existence in such diverse
environments as the imbedded hearts of meteors or the currents of
briny polar seas. It is likewise capable of infinite modifications
under stress, such as glacial flow, cessation of moisture, loss of
sunlight ... or, the rampant onslaught of bacterial disease.

Hardiest of all forms of life, as proved in the last days of the
reptilian age, are the carnivorous mammalian orders; these members are
generally the most adaptable, intelligent and ubiquitous of living
types. And by their conquest of their stubborn environment, they have
proven themselves equally the fiercest.

Thus, it was not surprising that eventually the derelict spaces
between the inner planet of Sol were once again the scene of traffic;
not bristling traffic perhaps, but sufficient to present concrete
proof a new intelligent race had developed on Terra.

Nor was it anym