rning, Mr. Phelps," he said.

"Good morning," Phelps answered, dropping tiredly into a chair.

"Have some coffee, Mr. Phelps," said Mrs. Garth, handing him a cup.

"Any news?" asked McIlroy.

"About Evans?" Phelps shook his head slowly. "Palomar called in a few
minutes back. Nothing to report and the sun was rising there. Australia
will be in position pretty soon. Several observatories there. Then
Capetown. There are lots of observatories in Europe, but most of them
are clouded over. Anyway the satellite observatory will be in position
by the time Europe is."

McIlroy was fully awake. He glanced at Phelps and wondered how long it
had been since he had slept last. More than that, McIlroy wondered why
this banker, who had never met Evans, was losing so much sleep about
finding him. It began to dawn on McIlroy that nearly the whole
population of Williamson Town was involved, one way or another, in the
search.

The director turned to ask Phelps about this fact, but the banker was
slumped in his chair, fast asleep with his coffee untouched.

It was three hours later that McIlroy woke Phelps.

"They've found the tractor," McIlroy said.

"Good," Phelps mumbled, and then as comprehension came; "That's fine!
That's just line! Is Evans--?"

"Can't tell yet. They spotted the tractor from the satellite
observatory. Captain Jones took off a few minutes ago, and he'll report
back as soon as he lands. Hadn't you better get some sleep?"

* * * * *

Evans was carrying a block of ice into the tractor when he saw the
rocket coming in for a landing. He dropped the block and stood waiting.
When the dust settled from around the tail of the rocket, he started to
run forward. The air lock opened, and Evans recognized the vacuum suited
figure of Nickel Jones.

"Evans, man!" said Jones' voice in the intercom. "Alive you are!"

"A Welshman takes a lot of killing," Evans answered.

* * * * *

Later, in Evans' tractor, he was telling his story:

"... And I don't know how long I sat there after I found the water." He
looked at the Goldburgian device he had made out of wire and tubing.
"Finally I built this thing. These caves were made of lava. They must
have been formed by steam some time, because there's a floor of ice in
all of 'em.

"The idea didn't come all at once, it took a long time for me to
remember that water is made out of oxygen and hydrogen. When I
reme