nture was accomplished.
They had broken out of their own solar system, made the big jump, and
before them lay the unknown. Now it was within their reach.

"D'you hear that, kid?" demanded Wonstead, his voice no longer an
accusing whine, more steady than Raf ever remembered hearing it. "We
got through! We'll hit dirt again! Dirt--" his words trailed away as
if he were sinking into some blissful daydream.

There was a different feeling to the ship herself. The steady drone
which had ached in their ears, their bones, as she bored her way
through the alien hyper-space had changed to a purr as if she, too,
were rejoicing at the success of their desperate try. For the first
time in weary weeks Raf remembered his own duties which would begin
when the _RS 10_ came in to a flame-cushioned landing on a new world.
He was to assemble and ready the small exploration flyer, to man its
controls and take it up and out. Frowning, he began to run over in his
mind each step in the preparations he must make as soon as they
planeted.

Information came down from control, where now the ports were open on
normal space and the engines were under control of the spacer's pilot.
Their goal was to be the third planet, one which showed signs of
atmosphere, of water and earth ready and waiting.

Those who were not on flight duty crowded into the tiny central cabin,
where they elbowed each other before the viewer. The ball of alien
earth grew from a pinpoint to the size of an orange. They forgot time
in the wonder which none had ever thought in his heart he would see on
the screen. Raf knew that in control every second of this was being
recorded as they began to establish a braking orbit, which with luck
would bring them down on the surface of the new world.

"Cities--those must be cities!" Those in the cabin studied the plate
with awe as the information filtered through the crew. Lablet, their
xenobiologist, sat with his fingers rigid on the lower bar of the visa
plate, so intent that nothing could break his vigil, while the rest
speculated wildly. Had they really seen cities?

Raf went down the corridor to the door of the sealed compartment that
held the machine and the supplies for which he was responsible. These
last hours of waiting were worse with their nagging suspense than all
the time which had gone before. If they could only set down!

He had, on training trips which now seemed very far in the past, trod
the rust-red desert country o