xisted! But you're fighting too many things at once, and they're
killing you. And they're mostly imaginary, at that. Can't you see that
there's no need of uncertainty between you and me? That there is no need
of you driving yourself to desperation on my account? Whatever must be
is all x with me, Steve. If you can build everything you need, all well
and good. We'll be engaged until then, and our love will be open and
sweet. If worst comes to worst, so that we can neither communicate with
Brandon and Westfall nor leave here under our own power--even that is
nothing to kill ourselves about. And yes, I do know exactly what we
are facing. I have been prepared for it ever since I first saw what a
perfectly impossible thing you are attempting. You are trying to go from
almost the Age of Bronze clear up to year-after-next in a month or two.
Not one man in a million could have done as much in his lifetime as you
have done in the last few weeks, and I do not see how even you, with
what little you have to work with, can possibly build such things as
power-plants, transmitters, and ultra-radio stations. But what of
it? For the day that it becomes clear that we are to remain here
indefinitely; that day we will marry each other here, before God.
Look around at this beautiful country. Could there be a finer world
upon which to found a new race? When we decided to cut loose from the
_Arcturus_ I told you that I was with you all the way, and now I'll
repeat it, with a lot more meaning. No matter what it's like, Steve, no
matter where it leads to, I'm with you--_to--the--end--of--the--road_.
Here or upon Earth or anywhere in the Universe. I am yours for life and
for eternity."

* * * * *

While she was speaking, the grim, strained lines upon Stevens' face
had disappeared, and as she fell silent he straightened up and gently,
tenderly, reverently he took her lithe body into his arms.

"You're right, sweetheart--everything _will_ check out on zero, to
nineteen decimals." He was a man transfigured. "I've been fighting
windmills and I've been scared sick--but how was I to think that a
wonder-girl like you could ever love a mutt like me? You certainly are
the gamest little partner a man ever had You're the world's straightest
shooter, ace--you're a square brick if there ever was one. Your sheer
nerve in being willing to go the whole route makes me love you more than
ever, if such a thing can be possible, and