d judge and had gingerly worked himself into the open end as far
as he could against the cushioning mass of ribbon chute. He took the
trigger lanyard loosely in hand and craning his neck to see past the
bulk of the cylinder he watched and waited.

* * * * *

To the experienced lift pilot there are certain subtle changes in color
values over the Earth's surface as one approaches more closely the outer
fringe of atmosphere. While braking approaches are auto-controlled, the
pilot taking over only after his ship is in atmosphere, the
conscientious man makes himself familiar with the "feel" of a visually
timed approach--just in case--and Johnny was a good pilot.

Watching Equatorial Africa sliding obliquely towards him Johnny suddenly
gave thought to a possible landing spot for the first time. Not that he
had any choice but a picture of a cold, wet immersion in any of several
possible bodies of water was not encouraging. The suit would probably
float but which end first was a matter for conjecture and out of it he
would be as badly off for Johnny could not swim a stroke.

Nor had he any clear idea how long it would take to slow down to a
vertical drop. Able Jake made a full half swing of the globe to brake
down but Able Jake was an ultra-streamlined object with many times the
mass and weight of Johnny and his rig; furthermore the ships were
controllable to a certain degree while Johnny was not. Beyond the
certain knowledge that the effect of the chutes would be quite violent
and probably short-lived, the rest was unpredictable.

He tried to shake off gloomy speculation, uneasily aware that much of
the carefree confidence of the last hour had deserted him. In a more
normal state of mind again he became prey to tension once more, a
pounding heart and dry mouth recalling mercilessly the essential
frailties of his kind. So, with aching neck and burning eyes he strained
for a clear view past the length of the cylinder and--

There! The preliminary to the visual changes, a sudden sweep of
distortion over the landscape as his angle of sight through the
refracting particles became more shallow. Now was the time he had judged
the throat vane gyros should begin their run-up.

He worked the lanyard back carefully, fearful an awkward movement might
upset the cylinder's line-up, pulling the trigger lever over to
half-cock where the micro switch should complete circuit with the dry
power pack. There s