It occurred to Cochrane that Alicia would probably find recompense for
her humiliation and pain in the little-boy penitence--exactly as
temporary as any other little-boy emotion--when she and Johnny Simms
were alone together.

The ship had come down close to the sunset-line of the planet. Away to
the west there was the glint of blue sea. Dusk was already descending
here. There were smoothly contoured hills in view, and there was a dark
patch of forest on one hilltop, and the trees at the woodland's edge had
the same drooping, grass-blade-like foliage of the trees first seen. But
there were larger and more solid giants among them. The ship had landed
on a small plateau, and downhill from it a spring gushed out with such
force that the water-surface was rounded by pressure from below. The
water overflowed and went down toward the sea.

"I think we're all right," said Al, the pilot. But he stayed in his
seat, in case the ship threatened to sway over. Cochrane inspected the
outer world.

"Well?"

"We sighted what I think you want," said Jones. He looked dead-pan and
yet secretly complacent. "Just watch."

The dusk grew deeper. Colorings appeared in the west. They were very
similar to the sunset-colorings on Earth.

"Not many volcanoes here."

The amount of dust was limited, as on Earth. A great star winked into
view in the east. It was as bright as Venus seen from Earth. It had a
just-perceptible disk. Close to it, infinitely small, there was a speck
of light which seemed somehow like a star. Cochrane squinted at it. He
thought of the great gas-giant world he'd seen out a port on the way
here. It had an attendant moon-world which itself had icecaps and seas
and continents. He called Jamison.

"I think that's the planet," agreed Jamison. "We passed close by it. We
saw it."

"It had a moon," observed Cochrane. "A big one. It looked like a world
itself. What would it be like there?"

"Cooler than this," said Jamison promptly, "because it's farther from
the sun. But it might pick up some heat from reflection from its
primary's white clouds. It would be a fair world. It has oceans and
continents and strings of foam-girt islands. But its sea is strange and
dark and restless. Gigantic tides surge in its depths, drawn by the
planetary colossus about which it swings. Its animal life--."

"Cut," said Cochrane dryly. "What do you really think? Could it be
another inhabitable world for people to move to?"

Jamison look