"Sure, Pop."

"Well that's what the other side of the planet is like. Only you couldn't tell what it was really like because we were too high. You wouldn't like it if you had to live there. It's cold, and rocky, and there's only six hours of daylight out of every twenty-six."

"I wouldn't like it then," the boy said. "I don't like the dark."

Claude got up and looked at his wife. "Shall we move along," he said.

They pushed ahead. Eagerly, yet slowly enough to absorb the world's endless beauty; stopping at the crest of each new hill; kneeling at the shores of crystal lakes to quench their thirst; and scooping up handfuls of rich, black soil in spots where the turf had become dislodged.

The sun of Centauri was almost at zenith when they approached the crest of the ridge that bounded the Marshall homestead.

Claude's pace, which had been quickening steadily for the final mile, burst into a jagged trot for the final hundred uphill yards. At the top of the hill he stopped, staring into the lush, green valley, ignoring his family who'd been unable to keep pace with his eagerness.

The homestead was all that the color photos had advertised—and more. It was all there. The flat, rich turf, the stream running through the center of the valley, and the grove of trees under which he'd build the prefab house.

He'd anticipated the moment so many times, it was hard to believe it had really arrived. But it was real—it was. Everything was exactly as he'd expected to find it ... except for one thing.

Always in his imagination, the land had been waiting for him to claim it. Him alone—and his wife and son.

But they weren't alone.... There were other people on the land. On his land!

And they were acting as if they lived there!

There were three of them—a man, a woman, and a boy of about nineteen. The woman appeared to be cooking a meal over a wood fire, while the man and boy were arranging a foundation pattern with part of the stack of building materials which had been ear-marked for the house.

For his house!

Joan and Billy drew up alongside him, and together they stared at the intruders.

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