told him, sharply, how far he had fallen behind in his
dreaming. He smiled and said, quite calmly, "I daresay I am about to be
rescued."

And he experienced a thrill as the great ship set down and two men
emerged therefrom. A thrill tinged with a guilt-sense, because
emotional experiences were rare in an isolated life and seemed somehow
indecent.

The two men held weapons. They advanced upon Professor Pettibone, looked
up into his face, reflected a certain wary hostility. That the hostility
was tinged with instinctive respect, even awe, made it no less potent.

One of them asked, "Fella--man came in ship--sky boat--long time ago.
Him dead? Where?" Appropriate gestures accompanied the words.

Professor Pettibone smiled down at the little men and bowed. "You are of
course referring to me. I came in the ship. I am Professor Pettibone. It
was nice of you to hunt me up."

The eyes of the two Terran spacemen met and locked in startled inquiry.
One of them voiced the reaction of both when he said, "What the hell--"

"You no doubt are curious as to the fate of the other members of the
expedition. They were killed, all save Fletcher, who lasted a week."
Professor Pettibone waved a hand. "There--in the graveyard."

But their eyes remained on the only survivor of that ill-fated first
expedition. It was hard to accept him as the man they sought, but, faced
with undeniable similarity between what they expected and what they had
found, the two spacemen had no alternative.

"I hope your food supply is ample--and varied," Professor Pettibone
said.

This seemed to bring them out of their bemusement. "Of course,
Professor. Would you care to come aboard?"

The other made a try at congenial levity. "You must be pretty hungry
after twenty years."

"Really--has it been that long? I tried to keep track at first...."

"We can blast off anytime you say. You're probably pretty anxious to get
back."

"Indeed, I am. The changes, in twenty years--must be breathtaking. I
wonder if they'll remember me?"

A short time later, the Professor said, "It's amazing. A ship of this
size handled by only two men." Then he sat down to a repast laid out by
one of the awed spacemen.

But, after nibbling a bit of this, a forkful of that, he found that
satisfaction lay in the anticipation more so than in the eating.

"We'll look around and see what we can find in the way of clothing for
you, Professor," one of the spacemen said. Then the man's b