ell back on the ground. His breathing was short, strained. His
face was bathed in perspiration. The oxygen, he realized, was giving
out.

What are the odds, that the air of Sirius Three is breathable, he
wondered. One in a hundred? The planet has water and both animal and
plant life. Certainly it has sufficient gravity to hold its oxygen. But
what other elements--noxious gases might be present. Maybe the odds are
closer to one in fifty, he decided.

"But it's no gamble when you have nothing to lose," he told the Milky
Way.

Ripping off his oxygen mask, he took a deep breath of the alien
atmosphere. The dust choked him, his ears rang. Black spots danced
before his eyes, then melted into solid blackness.

Brandon could hear Towers' voice in a vortex of darkness.

"Let's face it--Brandon is dead. Must have burned with the ship, at
least that's the way the report will read. Get me, Reinhardt?"

"Yes, sir," the disembodied voice of Reinhardt replied quietly.

"We're going to set her down on a solid piece of ground near one of the
oceans." There was a pause and Brandon could almost see Colonel Towers
drawing up to his full height. "I'm going to be the first man to set
foot on a planet of another solar system. Know what that means,
Reinhardt?"

"A quantum jump sir?"

"Right. Leap-frogging ahead of the Reds. Wait till they read the name
Colonel John Towers--maybe _General_ John Towers--_General_."

Brandon opened his eyes. Sirius was turning the sky to gray, trimming a
few scattered clouds with gold. As he stared at the sky, Sirius rose
with a brassy glare. Near it he could see its white hot dwarf star
companion. It was going to be a real scorcher, he decided; worse than
any desert on Earth. He sat up stiffly.

On the tele-talkie screen, Reinhardt, alone in the radio room, was
calling quietly for Brandon. The bulkhead door swung open and Towers
poked his head through.

"Knock that off," said Towers sternly, "and take your landing station."
As Reinhardt rose to his feet, Brandon reached over and turned off the
set.

Brandon took a deep breath. His head spun and for the first time he
realized that he was still alive. He gazed across the shimmering desert
to a ridge of scrubby hills. Blue mountains rose up beyond them. Great
floes of black lava had rolled down onto the desert floor at some
distant time. They were spotted with clumps of gray grass even as was
the desert. The hills were studded with weird trees st