er saw a good one yet."

"Well, that's not fair."

Mark was too tired to see the end coming, and Charles wasn't interested.
But the end was on its way. The air pump threatened to give out
momentarily. There hadn't been any food for days.

[Illustration]

"But why you?" Gasping in the escaping air. Strangling.

"Here I have a whole world--"

"Don't get sentimental--"

"And the love of a girl named Martha."

From his bunk Mark saw the stars for the last time. Big, bigger than
ever, endlessly floating in the still waters of space.

"The stars ..." Mark said.

"Yes?"

"The sun?"

"--shall shine as now."

"A bloody poet."

"A poor poet."

"And girls?"

"I dreamed of a girl named Martha once. Maybe if--"

"What do you think of girls? And stars? And Earth?" And it was bedtime,
this time forever.

Charles stood beside the body of his friend. He felt for a pulse once,
and allowed the withered hand to fall. He walked to a corner of the
shack and turned off the tired air pump.

The tape that Mark had prepared had a few cracked inches left to run. "I
hope he finds his Martha," the robot croaked, and then the tape broke.

His rusted limbs would not bend, and he stood frozen, staring back at
the naked stars. Then he bowed his head.

"The Lord is my shepherd," Charles said. "I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me ..."

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ Oct.-Nov. 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beside Still Waters, by Robert Sheckley

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