_Earthman was dying of boredom; Hope had become folly. Work merely a means to avoid insanity. And death was the great reward ... until Cragin, step-son of darkest space, dared the Barrier; dared to soar beyond the X Ecliptic--to the machine-planet--where The Owners grimly governed all the fading galaxies._ Earth's eyes still blinked in the bright sunlight in which they suddenly gloried again; Earth's throats, no longer fevered and parched, still wondered at the cool feel of fresh water, which had not trickled down them for more than five centuries. Earth's minds were still ignorant of the answer; they knew only that this was Life, although they had failed by themselves in cheating Death, an…
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