He entered the laboratory on Latham Beta III, and his face fell. Dust covered the equipment, the pilot lamps were out, and obviously nothing had been done for weeks, if not months. It was untenanted and untended. Paul went to the supervisor of the botanical set up. "I don't know," he said with a certain disinterest. "Your boys fooled around for a couple of weeks after you left and then decided that you'd gone for good. They might have sent word back to Neoterra, but it seemed a better idea to pick up and go home. So they did." Paul went back to the laboratory. Nora said, "Paul, let's go to Neoterra." "Why?" "I want Huston to know I'm all right." Paul looked at her blankly. "They might have left the radio beacons on," he mumbled. "What?" He told her again. "But we'd best get to Neoterra." Paul shook his head. "Nora, Latham's Triplets is one of the best places to test this Z-wave in the system. I've got to stay and check it." Nora shook her head. "Paul--" Paul looked at her. "Nora," he said soberly, "we're at cross-purposes again. Two things are important in my life. One of them is Nora and one of them is my work. My girl and my work do not agree--or let's say that my girl does not agree with my work. Until I get a chance to prove my work, there will always be this conflict. Since it takes such a short time to prove my work, why not wait?" Nora looked up at him. "I'll wait," she said simply. "Will you marry me--now?" Nora smiled. "Yes. If you don't mind a wife with literally nothing to wear. Everything I own is on me right now. But won't we have to go to Neoterra?" "Here we go again," growled Paul. Nora laughed and kissed him. "Do you want to wait three months for the radio beams to cross Latham's Triplets?" she asked him. "I--wait a minute!" "What, Paul?" "It is barely possible that--" his voice trailed away as he eyed a dusty calendar on one of the desks. He went to it and began flipping pages. "It's barely possible that my gang did not turn off the radio beacons for a couple of weeks after I got caught by Westlake," muttered Paul. "Just barely possible--" He went to the beacon receiver and turned it on. Impatiently he waited for it to warm up. It came to life and Paul tuned carefully through the band where he expected the beacons to come through. There was silence. He ran the dial far to one side, and then to the other. At one point he picked up some 'side splash' from the big interstellar beacon on Latham Alpha IV, leakage from the tight beam. He sat up stiffly. "Nora, will you wait a week?" "Week?" "I've caught some of the radiation leakage from the big transmitter. We can use that." "And if you fail?" "I won't fail." "Then if you succeed?" "Nora, if I succeed, I'll ask you to wait another three months. Because if I succeed, I'll want to wait until the Galactic Survey link between Latham Alpha IV and Old Baldy comes in. Then--" "How are you going to check between here and Alpha IV?"