iation had at
its disposal for such tasks. A few cryptic paragraphs expressed the
writer's satisfaction with the undetailed methods by which the Base's
localized climatic conditions were maintained.

So far even the equipment which kept the cabin in uninterrupted
operation had eluded Barney's search. It and the other required
machinery might be buried somewhere in the valley. Or it might, he
thought, have been set up just as easily some distance away, in the
desert or among the remotely towering mountain ranges. One thing he
had learned from the binder was that McAllen had told the truth in
saying no one could contact him from Earth before the full period of
his exile was over. The reason had seemed appalling enough in itself.
This world had moved to a point in its orbit where the radiance of its
distant sun was thickening between it and Earth, growing too intense
to be penetrated by the forces of the McAllen Tube. Another four years
would pass before the planet and the valley emerged gradually from
behind that barrier again.

* * * * *

He walked, rested, walked again. Now and then he was troubled by a
burst of violent sweating, followed by shivering fits until his
clothes began to dry again. The big moon edged presently over the
ridge above him, and in the first flood of its light the opposite
slope of the valley took on the appearance of a fanciful sub-oceanic
reef. The activity of the animal life about Barney increased promptly.
It was no darker now than an evening hour on Earth, and his fellow
occupants of the Ecological Base seemed well-adjusted to the strange
shifts of day and night to which they had been consigned.

He pushed through a final thicket of shrubbery, and found himself at
the edge of the lake. Beyond the almost circular body of water, a
towering wall of cliffs sealed the upper end of the valley. He had
come almost a mile, and while a mile--a city mile, at least--wouldn't
have meant much to Barney Chard at one time, he felt quite exhausted
now. He sat down at the edge of the water, and, after a minute or two,
bent forward and drank from it. It had the same cold, clear flavor as
the water in the cabin.

The surface of the water was unquiet. Soft-flying large insects of
some kind were swarming about, stippling the nearby stretch of the
lake with their touch, and there were frequent swift swirls as fish
rose from beneath to take down the flyers. Presently one of them