Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 224: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

| was tired, and even with my suit-heaters going full tilt it was a cold, long ride; sometimes | wondered if Kruger had a heart at all. Then | kicked myself for thinking like a kid, because | knew he was knocking himself out to get us both home as soon as he could, and with all the information we had tape for. But | still couldn’t help thinking that the guy had been born with a molybdenum slide rule in his mouth, both guaranteed never to wear out. | thought of the Martians and their science. And the ability, and certainly the desire ... why were they so damned content inside the Enclosures? Necessary respite at one time, of course—but as they’d advanced, surely they could look forward to the time when they could bring their tired planet back to the bloom of its youth. And space travel; even now, Kruger was going over one of their best ships with a fine-tooth comb. Why—why did they stay here, cooped up, a mere fraction of their former number? | felt | could see them dwindling... . Those were the questions Il’d been wanting to ask, and why in hell | hadn’t after four months of asking everything else conceivable | didn’t know. Why Kruger hadn’t | couldn’t guess. Unless they were that much smarter. Unless my questions were things guided completely beyond my awareness, and it was something they didn’t want us to Know. But | would ask tomorrow, first things first go to hell ... | damn well would ask tomorrow... . | hauled up within ten feet of the E-M-l’s stem, my tracks Spurting a small sandstorm, and almost hit the Martian track broadside. Something flipped over in my stomach, and a little of the fifty-below-zero Martian night started crawling up my Spine. Kruger wouldn't have come out here anyway—and if he had decided to, he’d have taken our own track and left a second message for me with the service engineers. CORniclooo SS CO