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The ht and you_"

Lustig began to tremble Samuel Hinkston did likewise

The sky was serene and quiet, and soh the cool caverns and tree shadings of a ravine So

"Sir," said Samuel Hinkston, "it an in the years before the first World War!"

"No"

"How else can you explain these houses, the iron deer, the pianos, the music?" Hinkston took the captain's elbow persuasively and looked into the captain's face "Say that there were people in the year 1905 who hated war and got together with some scientists in secret and built a rocket and came out here to Mars--"

"No, no, Hinkston"

"Why not? The world was a different world in 1905; they could have kept it a secret much more easily"

"But a co like a rocket, no, you couldn't keep it secret"

"And they came up here to live, and naturally the houses they built were siht the culture with them"

"And they've lived here all these years?" said the captain

"In peace and quiet, yes Maybe they h people here for one s discovered That's why this town see, myself, older than the year 1927, do you? Or maybe, sir, rocket travel is older than we think Perhaps it started in soo and was kept secret by the small number of men who came to Mars with only occasional visits to Earth over the centuries"

"You make it sound almost reasonable"

"It has to be We've the proof here before us; all we have to do is find some people and verify it"

Their boots were deadened of all sound in the thick green grass It s In spite of hireat peace come over him It had been thirty years since he had been in a s bees on the air lulled and quieted his was a balm to the soul