reconciled to
it. They were still living in an impossible dream.

Still she was sorry. She was sorry in the way she had always regretted
having to make a bad boy in kindergarten go stand with his face to the
wall. She tried to make up for it that evening.

[Illustration]

"I understand," she said as they sat near the campfire outside the
half-finished cabin. "You alter the torque, then try the various radio
wave bands in the new position."

They both looked at her, a little surprised.

"It must be a slow and tedious procedure," she continued.

"Very," Sam said with a groan.

A shifting air current, carrying the sound of the waterfall, gave her an
idea.

"Too bad you can't borrow the practice of Tibetan monks," she mused.
"They tie their prayers to a wheel, set it in a running stream. Every
turn of the wheel is a prayer sent up to their gods. That way they can
get their praying done for them while they go about the more urgent
matters of providing a living for themselves and their families."

She hadn't meant it to be so pointed, implying that all they were doing
was sending up futile prayers to unheeding gods, implying they should be
giving more attention to setting in winter stores. But even so....

"Miss Kitty," Sam said in a kind of awe. "You are a wonderful woman!"

In spite of her sudden flush of pleasure, she was irritated. As pointed
as she had made it, he had missed it.

[Illustration]

He turned and began talking excitedly to Lt. Harper. Yes, of course,
they could rig up an automatic method instead of doing it by hand. It
could be done faster and more smoothly with electric motors, but the
idea was the same. If Lt. Harper could rig a trip to kick the warp over
another notch each time, they could run it night and day. Just let some
kind of alarm bell start ringing, if they hit anything at the other end!

The two of them jumped to their feet then, grabbed her arms, squeezed
them, and rushed away to the little shed they'd constructed beside the
lifeship to hold some of their scattered equipment.

She felt vaguely regretful that she had mentioned it.

* * * * *

Still she gained a great deal. The men finished the cabin in a hurry
after that, and they put up their own bunkhouse in less than a week.
Both jobs were obviously not done by experts, and she had fussed at
them, although not unkindly, because she had had to chink such wide
cracks with a mixture of clay and