ed harmlessly over the edge of the precipice.

A few small store sheds were the only other signs of habitation.

It was too hot to do anything constructive. They relaxed in their
deck-chairs, grateful for the way in which the fans moved the monotonous
heat into unexpected currents of warm air.

Walter Pellinger looked upward expectantly, a sudden movement that
caused the little beads of perspiration on his head to run together and
course down his neck in a steady stream. He ran a handkerchief around
the inside of his collar. "What's the time?" he asked.

"Quarter past ten," said Tarsh.

"All right, Jason, you've had your fun. Now perhaps you'll consult the
right dial. We'd all like to know."

"I can never get used to these five-hour days," said Gillian Murray. "It
makes one feel so restless."

Curtis Delman frowned in mock reproof. The lawyer was in his prime, the
natural strength of his features enhanced by the iron-gray hair and
powerful physique.

"Really, Gillian," he said, "you ought to be thankful it's summer. At
least, you've got three hours of daylight."

"Well, I can't understand it," said John Bridge. "We've been here sixty
Earth days and the sun always sets at the same time."

"Nonsense," Delman replied. "It's been later each day. Though not much,
I grant you. Remember, summer still has nine years to run."

"Will someone please tell me the time?" said Walter Pellinger.

Jason Tarsh regarded him with approval. "That's much better. It's two
o'clock."

* * * * *

Of the five of them, John Bridge and Jason Tarsh were the least changed.
True, that 'lucky fool,' as Walter Pellinger called Bridge, had lost a
good deal of weight and his face was not quite so full as it had been,
but it was the same John Bridge who had climbed on board at Jupiter. The
change in Jason Tarsh was even less marked. Time had ironed out a few
creases here and there, and his back was straighter. But, apart from
that, he looked the same at fifty as he had at a hundred--gaunt,
resilient and merciless.

"It's due anytime now," said Walter Pellinger, his eyes still fixed on
the empty segment of horizon above the near end of the runway.

The others remained silent. The lawyer imagined that they were all
thinking of the incoming spaceboat. The landing today was something like
a dress-rehearsal for their own departure in thirty days. It broke the
tedium of their existence and with it would come a ch