So the _Hesperian Queen_ carried four men. And, whenever she made the Jump through hyperspace, even the crew--though conditioned on Earth--was drugged. Mattern carried on alone. And if, when the crewmen awakened, they found that a day had passed when only an hour should have gone by, they knew better than to ask questions. So the years went by--busy, pleasant, profitable years. The image of Lyddy was always before him, inspiring him to further efforts. _Someday soon I will go back to her_, he would tell himself. On his latest birthday, he looked in the mirror closely. At twenty-four, he had appeared forty; at forty, he could have passed for thirty. Sixteen years had gone by since that night with Lyddy. Now he was worthy of her or anyone. "I think it's time I went back for her," he told the kqyres. "For whom?" the kqyres asked; then added hastily, "Oh, yes, of course, Lyddy. We'll do that right after we come back from the Vega System. There's a little Earth-type planet out there--" "_Before_ we go to Vega," Mattern interrupted. "Now." "But why the hurry? You've waited so long already--" "I've waited too long. I'm not young any more." "Neither is she," observed the kqyres. "Perhaps she is too old now, Mattern." "She can't be too old," Mattern said. The tridi in his locker was Lyddy, and the picture was young; therefore, Lyddy must still be young. "She may have married someone else. She may have numerous children clustering about her knee." "Then I will take her away from her husband and children," Mattern declared. "Can you imagine that a little thing like that would stop me?" "She may have lost her beauty," the kqyres said. "She may have left Hesperia. She may have suffered a disfiguring accident." * * * * * Mattern realized then that Njeri was deliberately trying to keep him from going back to Lyddy. Either he felt that she would interfere with the smooth operation of their business, or he was jealous of a third intruding into their company. "I have done everything I did for the sake of winning Lyddy," Mattern said, biting off the words. "If all hope of her is gone, then my whole reason for working with you is gone. I will never go back to hyperspace." "There are other women--" "Not for me!" "The business itself means nothing to you?" There was an aggrieved note in the kqyres' voice. "It's just a living," Mattern said, "just a way of getting Lyddy. You know that was why I went into it. I thought you'd been listening to me all these years." "I thought perhaps with the deepening of your interests--" "They have only made me love her the more profoundly." The kqyres took the equivalent of a deep breath. "You do not have a house or any regular place of residence. You cannot expect a lady to live permanently on a spaceship." "I will build her a house." "Will it not show her how carefully you have prepared for her if, first, you build her a palace worthy--" "I have no time to build palaces."