e vidar screen. The planet had grown
larger. Already it was possible to make out the rippling serrulation of
contours. Another hour and the spaceboat would rest motionless on the
purple rock.

"Somehow it's frightening--" Gillian Murray shivered--"the idea that
Nature can work back to front, reverse the aging process."

"It's not an idea," he said. "It's a fact."

"Yes, I know," she replied, "but it's still uncanny. I've so many
doubts. I mean will I really look the same? And my mind? Oh, they've
told me there's no change--but there _must_ be!" She buried her head in
her hands.

Delman looked at her with compassion. "You needn't worry," he said.
"Nothing can go wrong. The memory remains unimpaired; it's only the
ability to make use of it that suffers--the knowledge is at your
disposal. You'll be just like other young people, heedless and
disinclined to profit from experience. You see, the mind is like a
machine; you press the right buttons and it draws the right conclusion.
The buttons are the facts to be considered and their selection is a
matter of judgment. When we're young, our judgment is often at fault.
When we're very young, we can't reason at all. There's nothing to
fear--only youthful exuberance."

Before she could answer, the loudspeaker buzzed twice. There was a
moment of silence, broken by the voice of Captain Ross.

"Attention, please! Attention, please! Will all passengers kindly retire
to their cabins. The forward jets will be fired in exactly five minutes.
I repeat, will all passengers--"

* * * * *

It was cool on the veranda, though outside, an alien sun beat down on
the smooth expanse of runway, a narrow platform, less than a mile in
length--the only flat stretch of land on the planet. Along the far edge,
mountains, bathed in sunlight, rose in barren splendor, their sharp
peaks reaching for the sky, while, on each remaining side, the ground
dropped sheer away, to reform itself in twisting valleys thousands of
feet below.

The house, two stories of prefabricated metal, stood perched on one of
the outer corners. Opposite, packed tightly against the rock face, the
emergency hangar rose in a gentle curve--a sheen of aluminum in contrast
with the purple background of rejuvenite. Between them, the launching
ramp stretched lengthwise down the runway, inclining steeply for the
first fifty feet, then leveling out so that the cruel blast of the
takeoff would be dispers