"Where do you think you are going?" she called.

"Away from here," he replied. But the rapid pace in the unaccustomed gravity was very quickly taking his energy. His breath came in deep, labored gasps already, and he could scarcely move his feet.

He stopped abruptly, and looked at the distant horizon. There was nothing in sight that indicated civilization. These regions had not been inhabited for two hundred and fifty years—ever since the severance of the planetary colonies from political control by the motherland, and the settling of the Proprietors into their well-separated, civilized cities. The land was all owned by the Proprietors, but was unnecessary, and hence not used.

He felt a light touch on his arm.

"I'm sorry," she apologized softly. "I can understand you a little, but you're so completely under the influence of your horrible personality conditioning methods that you can't possibly understand me."

"Who's under what influence?" Hal said in a valiant attempt to express his irritation, but his voice held the obvious weakness of fatigue.

"You poor boy," she sympathized. "You don't sound very much influenced by it right now."

At her words, Hal suddenly became aware of the unaccustomed vigor of his own emotions, and he was puzzled by it. But it seemed oddly unimportant for some reason. "How come you can handle this awful weight so easily?" he asked her.

Her laughter was light and delightful. "We spend most of our lives under natural conditions, not under an antigravity machine. I've only been on Earth for a few months, visiting my father. But a lot of that time was spent out here in this beautiful wilderness."

"Horrible chaos," he muttered. He glanced up and observed a mild, blue, cloud-studded sky. "Why it is blue, after all. Isn't it?"

"What's blue?"

"The skydome."

She glanced up thoughtfully. "Of course it's blue. And this is not one of your artificial skys. This is the real thing. There's no artificial weather control out here, you know. You get natural sunlight, natural winds, storms, rain—oh, lots of things."

"Gahh," said Hal.

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