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THE rain continued It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and stea at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains It cale and cut the trees like scissors and shaved the grass and tunneled the soil and molted the bushes It shrank men's hands into the hands of wrinkled apes; it rained a solid glassy rain, and it never stopped

"How much farther, Lieutenant?"

"I don't know A mile, ten miles, a thousand"

"Aren't you sure?"

"How can I be sure?"

"I don't like this rain If we only kne far it is to the Sun Dome, I'd feel better"

"Another hour or two from here"

"You really think so, Lieutenant?"

"Of course"

"Or are you lying to keep us happy?"

"I' to keep you happy Shut up!"

The two ether in the rain Behind them sat two other men et and tired and slu

The lieutenant looked up He had a face that once had been brown and now the rain had washed it pale, and the rain had washed the color from his eyes and they hite, as were his teeth, and as was his hair He was all white Even his uniforreen with fungus

The lieutenant felt the rain on his cheeks "Howhere on Venus?"

"Don't be crazy," said one of the two other oes on and on I've lived here for ten years and I never saw a "