He was dead and his mouth was shut for good.

Dunbar's last faint cry from inside his suit still rang in Russell's
ears, and he knew Alvar and Johnson had heard it too. Alvar and
Johnson both called Dunbar's name a few times. There was no answer.

[Illustration]

"Russ--you shouldn't have done that," Johnson whispered. "You
shouldn't have done that to the old man!"

"No," Alvar said, so low he could barely be heard. "You shouldn't have
done it."

"I did it for the three of us," Russell said. "It was either him or us.
Lies ... lies that was all he had left in his crazy head. Paradise ...
don't tell me you guys don't see the red rims around all four suns, all
four suns all around us. Don't tell me you guys didn't know he was batty,
that you really believed all that stuff he was spouting all the time!"

"Maybe he was lying, maybe not," Johnson said. "Now he's dead anyway."

"Maybe he was wrong, crazy, full of lies," Alvar said. "But now he's
dead."

"How could he see any difference in those four stars?" Russell said,
louder.

"He thought he was right," Alvar said. "He wanted to take us to
paradise. He was happy, nothing could stop the old man--but he's dead
now."

He sighed.

"He was taking us wrong ... wrong!" Russell screamed. "Angels--music
all night--houses like jewels--and women like angels--"

"_Shhhh_," said Alvar. It was quiet. How could it be so quiet, Russell
thought? And up ahead the old man's pressure suit with a corpse inside
went on ahead, leading the other three at the front of the
gravity-rope.

"Maybe he was wrong," Alvar said. "But now do we know which way is
right?"

* * * * *

Sometime later, Johnson said, "We got to decide now. Let's forget the
old man. Let's forget him and all that's gone and let's start now and
decide what to do."

And Alvar said, "Guess he was crazy all right, and I guess we trusted
him because we didn't have the strength to make up our own minds. Why
does a crazy man's laugh sound so good when you're desperate and don't
know what to do?"

"I always had a feeling we were going wrong," Johnson said. "Anyway,
it's forgotten, Russ. It's swallowed up in the darkness all around.
It's never been."

Russell said, "I've had a hunch all along that maybe the old man was
here before, and that he was right about there being a star here with
a world we can live on. But I've known we was heading wrong. I've had
a hunch all along that the