l they get on their feet," Dr. Adams said
quietly. "Then they'll be sent on--to wherever they came from."

Ken stared at him.

"There is only one thing we could never forgive ourselves for," the
doctor continued. "That one thing would be letting the Earth itself die.
As long as there are people alive who can fight the comet, we still have
a chance. Nothing else in the whole world matters now. Don't you see
there is no other purpose in keeping Mayfield alive except to support
the few people who understand the dust and can fight it? Beyond that,
Mayfield has no more right to live than any other town that has already
died. But Mayfield has to stay alive to keep you and your father and the
others like you fighting the dust."

Dr. Adams gave permission for Ken to be out of bed for a short time. He
tried, after the doctor had left, and almost fell on his face. The whole
world seemed to spin in enormous cart wheels. He persisted though, and 2
hours later he was making his way slowly up College Hill with the help
of Maria who walked beside him and lent her arm for support.

At the top of the hill they stopped and turned for a look at the valley
below them. The ruin was plain to see in spite of the snow cover. A
third of the town had been completely burned. At the old skating rink,
workmen were clawing through the debris for usable remains of food. A
miserably small pile of items showed the extent of their success.

Curls of smoke still rose from the ashes, and the nauseating smell of
death and burning floated over the whole valley.

Of his own experience Ken felt only a numbing confusion as yet. He
thought he should feel like a fool for his collapse at the height of the
battle, but he did not. He felt as if he had marched to the absolute
edge of human endurance and had looked to the dark pit below.

He turned to Maria. "I'll be okay now. It's time for you to get back to
the radio station. Tell them what has happened and get their reports.
I'll see you tonight."

It seemed a long time since he had last been in the laboratory. The
workers were once more in the midst of their thousands of trials and
failures to produce a colloidal, non-poisonous form of the
decontaminant, which could be infused in the atmosphere of the world to
destroy the comet dust.

He stayed until his father left at 7 o'clock, and they went home
together. He still had to depend on someone else for assistance on the
steep and slippery hill.

When th