the ship jockeyed for line, and
then there was that curious, momentary disturbance of all one's
sensations which was the effect of the overdrive field going on. Then
everything was normal again, except that the liner was speeding for the
planet Krim at something more than thirty times the speed of light.

Normality extended through all the galaxy so far inhabited by men. There
were worlds on which there was peace, and worlds on which there was
tumult. There were busy, zestful young worlds, and languid, weary old
ones. From the Near Rim to the farthest of occupied systems, planets
circled their suns, and men lived on them, and every man took himself
seriously and did not quite believe that the universe had existed before
he was born or would long survive his loss.

Time passed. Comets let out vast streamers like bridal veils and swept
toward and around their suns. Some of them--one in ten thousand, or
twenty--were possibly seen by human eyes. The liner bearing Hoddan sped
through the void.

In time it made a landfall on the Planet Krim. He went aground and
observed the spaceport city. It was new and bustling with tall buildings
and traffic jams and a feverish conviction that the purpose of living
was to earn more money this year than last. Its spaceport was
chaotically busy. Hoddan had time for swift sightseeing of one city only
and an estimate of what the people of such a planet would be sure they
wanted. He saw slums and gracious public buildings, and went back to the
spaceport and the liner which then rose upon the landing grid's force
fields until Krim was a great round ball below it. Then there was again
a jockeying for line, and the liner winked out of sight and was again
journeying at thirty times the speed of light.

Again time passed. In one of the remoter galaxies a super-nova flamed,
and on a rocky, barren world a small living thing squirmed
experimentally--and to mankind the one event was just as important as
the other.

But presently the liner from Krim and Walden appeared in Darth as the
tiniest of shimmering pearly specks against the blue. To the north and
east and west of the spaceport, rugged mountains rose steeply. Patches
of snow showed here and there, and naked rock reared boldly in spurs and
precipices. But there were trees on all the lower slopes, and there was
not really a timberline.

The space liner increased in size, descending toward the landing grid.
The grid itself was a monstrous lat