Kingsley had found an uncommonly large patch of brownish vegetation. He
had torn away a sizeable chunk and placed it in the bag. "Who knows?" he
shrugged. "I might be able to cultivate it."

"Or let it play the lead in a science fiction movie," snapped Anderson.

The first officer's bag contained a piece of one of the smaller craters.
It had no immediately discernable value. It was Anderson's intention to
polish it up and put some kind of a metal plaque on it.

Four more hours went by and there was no sign of Farnsworth or Hamston.
Robb began to worry. He'd never forgive himself if anything happened to
either of the two men. He waited another half hour, then ordered Kinsley
and Anderson to put on their pressure suits and go look for the two
missing crew members.

The search was avoided as Farnsworth entered the ship dragging Hamston
behind him.

"What happened!" yelled Robb.

Farnsworth began the job of getting out of his pressure suit. "I don't
know. Hamston's sick as a dog. I checked every inch of his suit and
couldn't find anything out of order."

Robb bent over the prone rocket expert. Hamston looked up at him with
half-opened eyes and an insipid grin on his face. He mumbled something
about "a fine state of affairs."

They removed Hamston's suit and placed his limp frame on a bunk. Robb
examined him for forty minutes.

He reached the curious conclusion that Hamston was as fit as a fiddle.

The rocket expert fell asleep. Robb and the rest of the crew prepared to
blast off.

* * * * *

The Ajax XX thrust itself through space, halfway back to its home
planet.

The excitement of her crew members grew with every passing second. In
his concern over Hamston, Farnsworth had forgotten about his souvenir.
He now opened his bag and displayed it before the others.

"What is it?" asked Kingsley.

"Dust!" was Farnsworth's proud reply.

"What the hell you going to do with dust?"

"Maybe you don't know it but this is going to be the most valuable dust
on the face of the Earth! Do you realize what I can get for an ounce of
this stuff?"

"What's anybody want to buy dust for?"

"Souvenirs, man, souvenirs!"

Farnsworth asked to see what Kingsley and Anderson had picked up. The
two men obliged. For the next hour the three men and Robb discussed the
mementoes and their possible uses on Earth.

Then Anderson said, "I sure wouldn't turn down about a gallon of good
Kentucky whis