t out to scout for enemies. If there was another fact that was
immutable, he had been buried.

"Where is he now?" Hargraves asked abruptly.

"In his bunk, snoring. He ate enough for two men, yawned, said he was
sleepy. He was sound asleep almost as soon as he touched the blankets."

Ron Val's voice relapsed into silence. The whole ship was silent.

"Jed, what are we going to do?"

"You bunk with him, don't you?"

"Yes. Jed! You don't mean--"

Hargraves cleared his throat. "This is not an order. You don't have to
do it if you don't want to. But Sarkoff must be watched. Are you willing
to go back to the room you two shared together and get into the upper
deck of your bunk just as if nothing has happened?"

"Yes," said Ron Val.

"Somebody must be with him--all the time. You stay awake. When he gets
up, you get up. Whatever he does, you stay with him. I'll have you
relieved as soon as possible. And, Ron--"

"Yes."

"You have something a man could use for courage."

Silently, Ron Val walked out of the control room. He fumbled his way
through the door and his steps echoed down the corridor that led to the
sleeping quarters.

Hargraves sat in thought. Then he, too, left the control room.

"Noble, you're a bio-chemist. You come with me. Nielson, you take over
here in the control room. In my absence you are in command."

"Yes sir," Nielson said. "But what are you going to do?"

"See what is in a grave we dug yesterday," Hargraves answered.

CHAPTER V

What the Graves Revealed

Hargraves carried the shovel. He and Noble were armed, and very much
alert.

"When you ask me if it is chemically possible for a man--or an
animal--to freeze, die, be buried, then rise again and live, I cannot
answer," Noble said. "So far as I know, it is not possible. The physical
act of freezing will involve tremendous and seemingly irreversible
changes in the body cells. Thawing will produce almost immediate
bacterial action, which also seems irreversible. All I can say is, if
Hal Sarkoff is alive, we have seen a miracle that contradicts chemical
laws as we know them."

"And if he is not alive, we face a miracle of duplication. Whatever it
is that is sleeping back in the ship, it looks, talks, acts, like Hal
Sarkoff, even to memory. Can you suggest any method by which flesh and
bone could be so speedily moulded into a living image of a man whom we
know died?"

"No," said Noble bluntly. "Jed, do you realize all the po