The World Beyond

confused, the very thoughts were a fantasy.... Off the Earth! Out in Space! So often he had read of it, as a future scientific possibility--but with this actuality now his mind seemed hardly to grasp it....

The man's voice said gently, "We cannot trust you. There must be no fighting--"

"I won't fight. What good could it do me?"

"You did fight. That was bad--that was frightening. We must not harm you--"

"Where are we going?" Lee murmured. "Why in the devil are you--"

"We think now it is best to say nothing. We will give you food through here. And over there--behind you--a little doorslide to another room. You and these other two can be comfortable--"

"For how long?" Lee demanded.

"It should not seem many days. Soon we shall go fast. Please watch it at the window--he would want that. You have been taught some science?"

"Yes. I guess so."

To Lee it was a weird, unnatural exchange between captor and captive. The voice, intoning the English words so s