t he did not.

He bowed. He was a great man. Undoubtedly he returned to his wife each
evening happily convinced that he had done the world a great favor by
permitting it to glimpse him.

Cochrane and Babs went on. Their baggage was taken care of. The
departure of a ship for the stars, these days, was much less complicated
and vastly more comfortable than it used to be when a mere moon-rocket
took off.

When they were in the ship, Babs heaved a sigh of absolute relief.

"Now," she said zestfully, "now you're retired, Jed! You don't have to
worry about anything! And so now I'm going to try to make you worry
about me--not worry about me, but think about me!"

"Of course," said Cochrane. He regarded her with honest affection.
"We'll take a good long vacation. First on the glacier planet. Then
we'll build a house somewhere in the hills back of Diamondville ..."

"Jed!" said Babs accusingly.

"There's a fair population there already," said Cochrane,
apologetically. "It won't be long before a local television station will
be logical. I was just thinking, Babs, that after we get bored with
loafing, I could start a program there. Really sound stuff. Not
commercial. And of course with the Dabney field it could be piped back
to Earth if any sponsor wanted it. I think they would ..."

Presently the ship with Babs and Cochrane among its passengers took off
to the stars. It was a perfectly routine flight. After all, star-travel
was almost six months old. It wasn't a novelty any longer.

Operation Outer Space was old stuff.

THE END.

* * * * *

Transcriber's notes

The following typos have been corrected. Hyphenation adjusted to reflect
the most common usage in the text.

Page Typo Correction
7 expendible expendable
8 calmy calmly
8 Takeoff's Take-off's
9 Takeoff Take-off
10 night-club nightclub
13 business-like businesslike
21 takeoff take-off
25 moonjeep moon-jeep
25 The pyschiatrist The psychiatrist
27 buisinesslike businesslike
33 Appenines Apennines
36 Arcturis Arcturus
37 Why? Why?"
39 tryin trying
40 stockholders stock-holders
41 possiblities possibilities
56 Columbus', Columbus'
57 Three of four Three or four
77 moonrocket moon-rocket
86 epid