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.Sam and some of his friends are out there cleaning up the mess the buzzards left, and they say they haven’t seen anything like it since the war.”Gregg opened his eyes and chose to give the sort of answer she would expect of him.“You missed a good fight, Ruth.”“Good fight!” Ruth clucked with exasperation.“You’re more of an old fool than I took you for, Billy Gregg.What happened? Did the Portfield mob fall out with each other?”“Something like that.”“Lucky for you,” Ruth scolded.“And where were Morna and the baby when all this was going on? Where are they now?”Gregg sorted through his memories, trying to separate dream and reality.“I don’t know, Ruth.They … left.”“How?”“They went with friends.”Ruth looked at him suspiciously, then gave a deep sigh.“I still think you’ve been up to something, but I’ve got a feeling I’ll never find out what it was.”Gregg remained in bed for a further three days, being nursed to fitness by Ruth, and it seemed to him a perfectly natural outcome that they should revive their plans to be married.During that time there was a fairly steady stream of callers, men who were pleased that he was alive and that Josh Portfield was dead.All of them were curious about the details of the gun battle, which was fast becoming legendary, but he said nothing to dispel the notion that Portfield and his men had annihilated themselves in a sudden quarrel.As soon as he had the house to himself, he searched it from one end to the other and found, tucked in behind his whisky jar, six slim gold bars neatly wrapped in a scrap of cloth.In keeping with his expectations, however, the big revolver—the black engine of death—was missing.He knew that Morna had decided he should not have it, and for a while he thought he might understand her reasons.There were words, half-remembered from his delirium, which seemed as though they might explain all that had happened.It was only necessary to recall them properly, to get them into sharp focus in his mind.And at first the task appeared simple—the main requirement being a breathing space, time in which to think.Gregg got his breathing space, but it was a long time before he could accept that, like the heat of summer, dreams can only fade.Unreasonable FacsimileCoburn gazed at his girl friend with a growing sense of dread.He had heard about things like this happening to perfectly normal young women, but he had always considered Erica to be immune.“You never mentioned marriage before,” he said numbly.“Besides—you’re a zoologist.”“Implying I have fleas? Or brucellosis?” Erica drew herself up to her full height, bringing her green eyes half-an-inch above Coburn’s.The movement had the effect of making her athletic Swedish body more desirable than ever, but Coburn was reminded of a cobra spreading its hood in menace.“No, no.” He spoke hastily.“All I meant was that somebody in your line of business must be aware how unnatural the monogamous state is among …’“Animals.Is that how you think of me?”“Well, you certainly aren’t a vegetable or a mineral.” Coburn smirked desperately.“I meant that as a joke, sweetie.”“I know you did, darling,” Erica softened unexpectedly and leaned towards him, swamping Coburn’s senses with impressions of warmth, spun-gold hair, perfume and mind-erasing curvatures.“But you would enjoy being married to a healthy animal like me, wouldn’t you?”“Of course I …’ Coburn stopped speaking as he realized what was happening.“The trouble is I can’t marry you.”“Why not?”“Well, you see …’ His mind raced, seeking inspiration.“As a matter of fact … ah … I’ve joined the Space Mercantile.”Erica recoiled instantly.“To get away from me!”“No.” Coburn unfocused his eyes, hoping it would give him the appearance of being space-struck.“It’s the outward urge, sweetie.I can’t fight it.The wild black yonder’s calling to me.My feet are itching to tread the surface of alien stars.”“Planets,” Erica said severely.“That’s what I meant to say.”“In that case, I too will go away.” Her eyes were magnified by tears.“To forget you.”Coburn was basically a soft-hearted young man and he was distressed to see that Erica was upset, but he consoled himself with the thought of having escaped marriage which, as any citizen of the 21st Century knew, was a tedious anachronism.He was all the more surprised, therefore, to discover—three days after Erica had left on a field trip to some unpronounceable corner of the world—that life no longer seemed worth living.None of the pleasures which had seemed so attractive when Erica was talking marriage were pleasures any longer.In the end—deciding he had reached the lowpoint of his life—he did what seemed the only logical thing to do.He joined the Space Mercantile.Coburn discovered later that he had been mistaken about the lowest point in his life.This realization came, suddenly, after he had been in the service about three months
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