wered.

"He disagreed with me on the supposed effects of the cosmic rays. It has
been my contention that they are of lethal effect, and Gaddon
maintained that I was wrong. He kept insisting that they were a source
of life energy. That was why we decided to experiment with an animal--to
see what effect the rays would have on a living creature ...

"But this! I never dreamed of such a possibility--to prove his point he
signed his own death warrant!"

"That's a story, doctor, a real story!"

Trent heard the newsman exclaim excitedly. And then it came to him that
the real story was as yet untold. The real story that had been unfolded
in his car earlier that day.

Fred moved suddenly away from the clamor of the newsmen around the
scientist. He knew what he had to do.

He hurried across the ground to his waiting coupe outside the
Administration building. Then he got behind the wheel and started the
motor.

He drove to the gate and waited until the guard passed him through, then
he turned up the road toward Tucson.

As he drove he felt an odd tenseness sweep through him. For he was
thinking of what Gaddon had said on the drive up to the Proving Grounds.
He was remembering the man's words on the cosmic rays and the secret of
eternal life they held. And Fred Trent knew that this was the biggest
story. The story that he alone held. It was the big break that he had
been waiting for. It would be his exclusive. The inside, personal story
of a man who had died to prove his theory. Told as Gaddon himself had
related it. With all the vanity of the man, all the pompous assurance he
had shown. It would make the headlines and feature sections all over the
country. The story of a man who had flown to his death in quest of
immortality.

And then Trent's thoughts grew sober suddenly. But was he going to his
death? Could he be sure that Mathieson was right? That Gaddon was
suffering from some streak of insanity that had manifested itself in
this final venture of madness? Or could it be that Gaddon might be
right, that ...

Trent set his lips and sighed. No, that couldn't be true. It was beyond
the comprehension of man.

What mattered now was the story. The story that would put his name in a
thousand papers all over the country. And he thought in that moment of
Joan Drake. A warm smile pulled at his lips as he thought of her. This
would force her to quit her job now and marry him. The one condition she
had made--he had finally o