... this is magnificent, Dick!" she exclaimed. "It's
stupendous. It seems as though we were right out there in space itself,
and not in here at all. It's ... it's just too perfectly darn
wonderful!"

Although neither of them was unacquainted with interstellar space, it
presents a spectacle that never fails to awe even the most seasoned
observer: and no human being had ever before viewed the wonders of space
from such a coign of vantage. Thus the two fell silent and awed as they
gazed out into the abysmal depths of the interstellar void. The darkness
of Earthly night is ameliorated by light-rays scattered by the
atmosphere: the stars twinkle and scintillate and their light is
diffused, because of the same medium. But here, what a contrast! They
saw the utter, absolute darkness of the complete absence of all light:
and upon that indescribable blackness they beheld superimposed the
almost unbearable brilliance of enormous suns concentrated into
mathematical points, dimensionless. Sirius blazed in blue-white
splendor, dominating the lesser members of his constellation, a minute
but intensely brilliant diamond upon a field of black velvet--his
refulgence unmarred by any trace of scintillation or distortion.

As Seaton slowly shifted the field of vision, angling toward and across
the celestial equator and the ecliptic, they beheld in turn mighty
Rigel; The Belt, headed by dazzlingly brilliant-white Delta-Orionis; red
Betelguese; storied Aldebaran, the friend of mariners; and the
astronomically constant Pleiades.

Seaton's arm contracted, swinging Dorothy into his embrace; their lips
met and held.

"Isn't it wonderful, lover," she murmured, "to be out here in space this
way, together, away from all our troubles and worries? I am so happy."

"It's all of that, sweetheart mine!"

"I almost died, every time they shot at you. Suppose your armor cracked
or something? I wouldn't want to go on living--I'd just naturally die!"

"I'm glad it didn't--and I'm twice as glad that they didn't succeed in
grabbing you away from me...." His jaw set rigidly, his gray eyes became
hard as tempered drills. "Blackie DuQuesne has something coming to him.
So far, I have always paid my debts.... I shall settle with him ... IN
FULL."

"That was an awfully quick change of subject," he continued, his voice
changing instantly into a lighter vein, "but that's one penalty of being
human. We can't live in high altitudes all our lives--if we could t