ame? Call a man unlucky and you're
superstitious. Call him accident prone and that's sound business sense.
I've said enough.

"All the same, search the space-flight records, talk to the actuaries.
When a ship is working perfectly and is operated by a hand-picked crew
of highly trained men in perfect condition, how often is it wrecked by a
series of silly errors happening one after another in defiance of
probability?

"I'll sign off with two thoughts, one depressing and one cheering. A
single Chingsi wrecked our ship and our launch. What could a whole
planetful of them do?

"On the other hand, a talent that manipulates chance events is bound to
be chancy. No matter how highly developed it can't be surefire. The
proof is that I've survived to tell the tale."

* * * * *

At twenty below zero and fifty miles an hour the wind ravaged the
mountain. Peering through his polarized vizor at the white waste and the
snow-filled air howling over it, sliding and stumbling with every step
on a slope that got gradually steeper and seemed to go on forever, Matt
Hennessy began to inch his way up the north face of Mount Everest.

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Astounding Science Fiction_ February
1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

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