Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

MISSION OF GRAVITY take advantage of it; but this presently died out and left the ship at the mercy of the current. This was going in the right direction, however, and no one com- plained. The land adventure had been interesting and profitable, for several of the plant products collected could cer- tainly be sold at high prices once they reached home; but no one was sorry to be afloat again. Some looked back at the waterfall as long as it could be seen, and once everyone stared into the west to catch a glimpse of the rocket as the muted thunder of its approach reached them; but in general the feeling was one of anticipation. A new sea lay ahead—one that no member of their nation had ever ridden. There would be new and strange people to meet, certainly to trade, perhaps to fight as well. Captain Cook sailing into the South Seas for the first time must have felt much as these beings felt— sailors as well as officers, for any who were so lacking in imagination as to go wherever Barlennan ordered without thought or interest had long since dropped away from his crew. - There were no present worries; the Flyers far above had said that river had no falls or rapids all the way to the sea. There were none for the immediate future, either; there was so much food aboard that most of the sailors did not even bother to fish, much as they nor- mally preferred fresh food. For the moment, there was practically nothing to do except speculate on what the future might hold; and morale was so high that _not even Dondragmer felt there was any need of inventing work to stop talk. The banks on either side began to draw more and more attention as they proceeded. During their overland journey they had become accustomed to the sight of an occasional upright growth of the sort that the Flyer had called a “tree,” usually seeing one every few days. They had been fascinating objects at first, and had, indeed, proved a source of one of the foods they planned to sell at home. Now the trees were becoming more and more numerous, threatening to replace the more familiar sprawling, rope- branched plants entirely, and Barlennan 39 began to wonder if even a colony planted here might not be able to support itself by trade in what the Flyer had called fir-cones—he had said the fruit closely resembled an object that went by that name on his own world. Of course, if they proved too common the price would go down—but no, they would never be common on the shores of his ocean while travel between the seas was this difficult. It was a project worth considering. Of course, some. of the giant natives they had met above the cliff might be here too, and that could be either good or bad. Depending. The last thought was a cryptic one, and Barlennan shifted his specula- tion to other directions. For a long time, fully fifty miles, no. intelligent life was sighted, though animals in fair numbers were seen along the banks. The river itself teemed with fish, though none appeared large enough to constitute a danger to the Bree. Even- tually the river on either side became lined with trees, which extended no one could tell how far inland; and Barlennan, spurred by curiosity, ordered the ship steered closer to shore to see what a forest—he had no such word for it, of course—looked like. It was fairly bright even in the depths of the woods, since the trees did not spread out at the top nearly as much as is common on Earth, but it was strange enough. Drifting along almost in the shadow of the weird plants, many of the crew felt a resurgence of their old terror of having solid objects overhead; and there was a general feeling of relief when the captain silently gestured the helms- man to steer away from the bank once more. If anyone lived there they were wel- come to it. Dondragmer expressed this opinion aloud, and was answered by a general mutter of approval. Unfortunately, his words were either not heard or not understood by listeners on the bank. Per- haps they were not actually afraid that the Bree’s crew meant to take their forest away from them, but they decided to take no chances; and once more the visitors from high-weight suffered an experience with projectile weapons. The armory this time consisted en- GComicboo <SE'GO