you expected on some unpeopled planet that hadn't yet been pioneered and civilized. But Earth was the oldest human-peopled world in the whole galaxy.

Yet Carlin had to admit that there were certain compensations here. That winelike air was still an experience to him. And walking now came more easily to his muscles here than on any world. It seemed odd to be walking with such perfect ease, without wearing a de-grav.

He could not find the brook Marn had mentioned. He sat down on a log by the roadside, musing on the drowsy, dull quiet of this place. There was not a sound of human activity. Didn't these Earth people ever get bored with the sleepiness of the place?

Carlin found he was still tired. He watched a small, brilliant insect fluttering over a flower near by. Soft wind breathed through the ragged woods, stirring the green leaves and making a dappled, dancing pattern of sunlight on the ground. A distant bird called rustily.

"An old, outworn planet, dreaming," he thought. "These people, all of them, living in its past."

Carlin finally got up stiffly, and lounged back along the road. He was surprised to find that time had passed quickly, that the sun was now at the zenith. And that, somehow, his taut nerves had relaxed.

The big workshop behind the house had its doors open now. He glanced through them and was surprised to see that the cavernous room in there was a fairly well-equipped atomic-engineering laboratory.

Interested, Carlin started toward it. In the center of the big room he had glimpsed a towering, massive machine whose inner mechanism was concealed by a cylindrical metal cover.

"Looks like it might be a big field-generator of some kind," he muttered. "I wonder what it really is?"

There was a violent exclamation as an Earthman came running out from behind the machine to block his entrance.

Carlin recognized the broad red face, angry eyes and stocky figure of Loesser, the man who had argued with Jonny at the spaceport.

"What are you doing here?" Loesser demanded harshly.

Carlin was bewildered by his vehemence. "Why, I just wanted to take a look at this machine."

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