s eyes. The long, hunted years were beginning to be washed from him,
and daily, to Carse, he appeared younger. Often in the control cabin
or over a meal he talked of what lay ahead, and the happiness Earth
held waiting for him. There was his daughter, Sandra, whom he had seen
last as a girl of fourteen, and even then interested in his work. She
would be matured now, and she would perhaps be eager to help him in
the work he intended to resume. There was so much of it! Discoveries,
theories, evolved during his fugitive years--now he could complete
them and give them to his old circles of brother scientists. All this
was in his conversations; but secret and unworded in his thoughts were
anticipations of the old dear beauty of Earth, that beauty for which
his ageing heart had pined so long....

And Earth was drawing nearer.

* * * * *

Another week passed.

Twice a day the door of Dr. Ku Sui's cabin was unlocked and he was
brought out under guard for several turns through the ship. Though for
safety's sake they continued to dose him with the V-27, it was
apparent that the gas had less and less effect on him. Four, then
eight, then twelve times a day they re-gassed him--as often as they
dared, considering its ultimate destructive mental effect--but more
and more of the frankness and serenity foreign to his green eyes
melted away. Gradually the normal veil came to hide their depths and
make them enigmatic; and sometimes there was again on his face the
hint of something strong and tigerish and cruel lying waiting. They no
longer trusted him to attend to the five patients. He spoke seldom. A
tall, reserved figure in black silk, attended either by Ban Wilson or
Friday, he strolled through the ship for fifteen minutes and was
returned to his lonely cabin. Of all the marks his experience must
have left upon him, the only one apparent was his silence.

It was on the seventeenth day that he forsook that silence and
directly accosted Carse. He had a request. The saffron face impassive,
the long lashes lying low over the eyes, he said softly:

"I wonder, Captain Carse, if I might be permitted a glimpse of the
subjects of my transplantation?"

Leithgow and Wilson were at the time with Carse in the control cabin,
and they regarded their friend intently, curious as to what the reply
would be. They saw his steel-gray eyes meet Dr. Ku's gaze squarely;
and the two men looked at each other: Hawk Carse,