rattle-head?"

"Yes, sir," Mr. Wordsley said. "And if I might be allowed to speculate,
Captain, I would say that we are finished unless we can make a
planetfall. Only then would I be able to remove the lower port tube,
weld the cavity, seal the ship and fumigate."

"We're four weeks from the nearest star, Fomalhaut; you know that as
well as I do."

"I was thinking," said Mr. Wordsley, with a sudden, suffused glow in his
cheeks, "of Avis Solis."

Mr. Wordsley shut his eyes as they were going down, because he wanted to
open them and surprise himself, at the moment of landing. But the cold,
white glare was more intense than he had expected, and he had to shut
them again and turn on the polarizer.

He buckled on his tools and the carbo-torch, and went down the ladder.
He dropped at once to his knees, not because of the gravity, which was
not bad, but because of a compulsion to get his face as near to the
surface of Avis Solis as possible. It was even lovelier than when seen
from space. He trod upon a sea of diamonds. A million tiny winkings and
scintillations emanated from each crystal. A million crystals lay
beneath the sole of his boot. He would rather not have stepped on them,
but it could not be helped. They were everywhere. Mr. Wordsley gloated.

* * * * *

DeCastros dropped like a huge slug from the ladder behind him. "What are
you doing?" he said. "Picnicking?"

"I was tying my shoe," Mr. Wordsley said, and got to work with an
alacrity that was wholly false.

The dark sun-satellites rose by twos and threes over the horizon, felt
rather than clearly seen. There was a dry wind that blew from the
glittering wasteland and whistled around the base of the rockets as Mr.
Wordsley labored on and on.

Captain DeCastros had withdrawn to a level outcropping of igneous rock
and sat staring at the nothing where the greenish-black sky met the pale
gray horizon.

The tube was loosened on its shackles and presently fell, with a
tinkling sound, upon the surface of Avis Solis. The opening was sealed
and welded. Mr. Wordsley was practically finished, but he did not hurry.
Instead, he went around to the opposite side of the ship on a pretense
of inspection, and sat down where DeCastros could not see him.

For awhile he stared at the many-faceted depths of the crystals; then he
leaned over and touched them with his lips. They were smooth and
exciting. They cut his lip.

But he had the dist