Chapter VIII: Part 8

Bordman regarded the young man approvingly.

"When I was your age," he said, "I'd the very same attitude. But I had the only reward the Service or anything else could give me. The job got done. It's the only reward you can expect in the Service, Barnes. You'll never get any other."

Young Barnes looked rebellious. He shook hands again.

"Besides," said Bordman, "there is no better."

Young Barnes marched back toward his ship in the great metal criss-cross of girders which was the landing-grid.

Bordman absently patted his dog as he headed back toward Sandringham's office for his orders to return to his own work.

* * * * *

So Bordman went back to his wife Riki and the job he'd been working on. After that there was another job, and another. He received the high honor of being given the most impossible of the tasks the Survey was forced to do. Which was deeply satisfying. He regretted that he had to become relatively inactive when he became Sector Chief.

But his wife liked it very much. There was assurance, then, that they would be together for always, and Bordman still had his work and she could make--again--a home. When one of his daughters was widowed and came to live with them with her children, Bordman was beautifully contented. Then he had absolutely everything he wanted. As reward for a life-time of work and separation, he had the satisfactions--in his family--that other men enjoyed as a matter of course.

But sometimes he was embarrassed when his juniors were too respectful. He didn't think he rated it.

* * * * *

You Are There--

Centuries, eons from now the peculiar, fantastic, astounding MIND OF MAN will conquer strange, new worlds, presently beyond the reaches of imagination--and probe the meaning of the central core of Infinity with instruments of incredible scientific precision!

You Are There! in the far-off era when man will defy gravity, space, time--to explore the UNIVERSE and make immensity HIS OWN!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Murray Leinster is widely acknowledged by fans as the "Dean of Science Fiction" and even as "Mr. Science Fiction." LIFE has reported that he reads more technical literature than most research scientists. He is also a successful inventor in his own right.

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