_The first man to return from beyond the Great Frontier may be welcomed ... but will it be as a curiosity, rather than as a hero...?_ There was the usual welcoming crowd for a celebrity, and the usual speeches by the usual politicians who met him at the airport which had once been twenty miles outside of Croton, but which the growing city had since engulfed and placed well within its boundaries. But everything wasn't usual. The crowd was quiet, and the mayor didn't seem quite as at-ease as he'd been on his last big welcoming--for Corporal Berringer, one of the crew of the spaceship _Washington_, first to set Americans upon Mars. His Honor's handclasp was somewhat moist and cold. His Honor's…
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