Marn was out tending the big hydroponic tanks.

He tinkered with the old video set in the living room but the only stations he could get were local Earth ones, and lectures on hydroponics and gossip about unknown people didn't interest him.

He finally gave up and stretched out on the veranda, staring sleepily down into the green cup of the valley and cursing the psychotherapist whose insane idea had sent him here to die of boredom. He dozed until he was awakened by the sputter of an arriving ato-truck.

It contained three lanky young men, tall Earthmen who went back to the workshop without stopping at the house. The other partners in the prospecting expedition, Carlin supposed sleepily.

Again he felt that queer sense of something threatening, that vague premonition that had clung to him ever since he glanced into the workshop. If only he could remember what that machine reminded him of.

Days passed and Carlin still could not remember that, though his disturbing doubt persisted. There was no chance of another look into the workshop for it was always locked except when Jonny and Harb and their half-dozen partners worked in it.

"The trouble with me," Carlin told himself ironically, "is that I haven't anything else to occupy my mind on this blamed world."

Yet Carlin's first repelled dislike of Earth had faded much by now. The crudities of existence, the lack of civilized conveniences, no longer bothered him so much. He had to admit that whether or not Earth-treatment was benefiting his twisted subconscious, this sleepy old planet was a fine place for a rest.

He spent his mornings idly rambling the twisting roads, his afternoons lounging on the cool, shady veranda of the old house, or helping Marn tend the hydroponic tanks. Or fishing with Gramp in the foaming brook below the ridge, while that oldster told interminable tales of the old days when he had followed space.

Neighbors, hydroponic farmers up and down the valley, dropped in at the Land house in the evenings. Carlin did not intrude, and gradually their first stiff suspicion of him abated and they talked freely before him. The talk always swung to the paramount consideration on this power-starved planet—the need for copper. It made Carlin feel a little guilty to remember how much of it was wasted on other worlds.

"I have to drive down to the spaceport for 

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