ate terrified him. The Black Plague in London, the Great Fire, the
Spanish Armada in flames off the coast of a bleak little island that
would soon mold the destiny of half the world--how meaningless it all
seemed in the shadow of his fear!

Had the human race really advanced so much? Time had been conquered but
no man was yet wise enough to heal himself if a stark, unreasoning fear
took possession of his mind and heart, giving him no peace.

Moonson lowered his eyes, saw that Rutella was watching him in the
manner of a shy woman not wishing to break in too abruptly on the
thoughts of a stranger.

Deep within him he knew that he had become a stranger to his own wife
and the realization sharply increased his torment. He stared down at her
head against his knee, at her beautiful back and sleek, dark hair.
Violet eyes she had, not black as they seemed at first glance but a
deep, lustrous violet.

He remembered suddenly that he was still a young man, with a young man's
ardor surging strong in him. He bent swiftly, kissed her lips and eyes.
As he did so her arms tightened about him until he found himself
wondering what he could have done to deserve such a woman.

She had never seemed more precious to him and for an instant he could
feel his fear lessening a little. But it came back and was worse than
before. It was like an old pain returning at an unexpected moment to
chill a man with the sickening reminder that all joy must end.

His decision to act was made quickly.

The first step was the most difficult but with a deliberate effort of
will he accomplished it to his satisfaction. His secret thoughts he
buried beneath a continuous mental preoccupation with the vain and the
trivial. It was important to the success of his plan that his companions
should suspect nothing.

The second step was less difficult. The mental block remained firm and
he succeeded in carrying on actual preparations for his departure in
complete secrecy.

The third step was the final one and it took him from a large
compartment to a small one, from a high-arching surface of metal to a
maze of intricate control mechanisms in a space so narrow that he had to
crouch to work with accuracy.

Swiftly and competently his fingers moved over instruments of science
which only a completely sane man would have known how to manipulate. It
was an acid test of his sanity and he knew as he worked that his
reasoning faculties at least had suffered no impairmen