never felt better in his life. Always had liked Martian
tobacco, too. Wondered what they'd do when the supply ran out. One
thing they couldn't produce synthetically. The disc of the satellite
loomed near and it shone with a warmly inviting light. Almost red,
like the color of Mars, it was. Sort of golden, rather. Anyway, he
wondered what awaited them there. This was a great life, this roaming
in space, unhampered by laws or conventions. The _Nomad_ was well
named.

"Wonder what they'll think of our yarn," he said.

"And me. I wonder, too, what that ungodly thing was back there. The
thing that is now the grave of some of their people. And what the
golden sphere was doing so far from home. It's a mystery."

* * * * *

They had gone over the same ground a hundred times and had not reached
a satisfactory conclusion. But perhaps they'd learn more in the city
of golden domes.

"Another thing," said Carr, "that's puzzled me. Why is it that Europa
has not been discovered before this; that it's inhabited, I mean?"

"Rocket ships couldn't carry enough fuel. Besides, our astronomers've
always told us that the outer planets were too cold; too far from the
sun."

"That is something to think about. Maybe we'll not be able to stand
the low temperature; thin atmosphere; low surface gravity."

"We've our insulated suits and the oxygen helmets for the first two
objections. The G-rays'll hold us down in any gravity. But we'll see
mighty soon. We're here."

They had entered the atmosphere as they talked and the _Nomad_ was
approaching the surface in a long glide with repulsion full on. It was
daytime on the side they neared. Pale daylight, but revealing. The
great ball that was Jupiter hung low on the horizon, its misty outline
faintly visible against the deep green of the sky.

* * * * *

The surface over which they skimmed was patchworked with farm-lands
and crisscrossed by gleaming ribbons. Roadways! It was like the
voice-vision records of the ancient days on Mars and Terra before
their peoples had taken to the air. Here was a body where a person
could get out in the open; next to nature. They crossed a lake of calm
green water fringed by golden sands. At its far side a village spread
out beneath them and was gone; a village of broad pavements and
circular dwellings with flat rooms, each with its square of ground. A
golden, mountain range loomed in the backgrou