sting knowing glances over his shoulder, he
was gone. Great little Irishman, Tommy: always smiling, always there in
a pinch, never worried, he was the best friend a man could have. They'd
catch hell when they got back, for losing a part of their precious
cargo. Those miserly k-metal people wouldn't give them credit for
salvaging nine-tenths of the stuff (luckily only about a tenth had been
removed by the Llotta): they'd only cry about the amount that was lost.
And Tom Farley would laugh it off: kid them out of it.

Ulana was smiling as if she understood. She _did_ understand, God bless
her. She saw into this wonderful friendship and was glad. It was great
to have a friend like that--and a girl like this.

Hand in hand, they gazed into the heavens before them. To the girl it
was a most marvelous sight, an omen of good fortune and of happiness to
come. She nestled her head into the shoulder of the Earth man as she
watched; spellbound.

For a long time the silence was broken only by the steady muffled purr
of the stern rocket-tubes. The aroma of cigarette smoke drifted up the
companionway.

Out there in the heavens was the sun, Mars, Earth, Venus; the dear old
solar system was still intact, undisturbed excepting for the slight
perturbation in the region of Jupiter. Blaine doubted if the influence
was measurable insofar as changes in the motions of the inner planets
were concerned.

He turned to the eyepiece of the telescope and swung the instrument
around to bear on the Earth. A cool green crescent was there in the
field of vision: the eastern coast line of the Americas outlined clear
and distinct.

"Look, dear," he whispered. "Home! Your new home is there; our home
together."

She sighed happily as she gazed at the inviting sunlit outlines.
"Home," she repeated, softly, reverently, "with you, oh my Carson--for
all eternity."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Copper-Clad World, by Harl Vincent

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