"Gently, gently," chided Dr. Kang. Again one of his rare smiles touched his lips. "Youth is impetuous. It is written, 'The young man tests the balance of the sword; the elder sage admires its chaste engraving.' Dr. Lane's discovery would be frightening ... if it were based on fact. But there is another way of viewing the matter. One you have not pondered. Have you failed to take into consideration the _length_ of the Magogean year?" Dr. Bryant stopped him in mid-sentence, his eyes lighting with swift admiration. "But, of course! That is extremely important. If the orbital revolution of Magog takes longer than that of Earth--" "I believe," said Dr. Kang placidly, "you will find it does. Approximately 2000 times longer! We have not, just now, the time to study the truth of my conjecture. But from certain factors I have noticed, I believe we shall find this to be true. The size of Magog argues a slow orbital movement. "In brief, my friends, I conclude that Magog revolves about its primary but a single time while Earth is whirling around the Sun _two thousand_ times. There is, therefore, a one-to-one correspondence between the time units of our systems. We may completely disregard their relative size. A 'day' on Magog may equal 2000 Earth days--but twenty-four Earthly hours spent on Magog are of no longer duration than the same period spent on Earth. We may govern our actions accordingly." Gary said soberly, "I certainly hope you are right, Doctor. Otherwise, howsoever short a time we spend in this system may be too long to save our universe. But--but you realize what this _means_, don't you? I am thinking now of the life span of the Magogeans." Dr. Kang nodded. "I realize very well. It means that if they live an average of sixty to a hundred Magogean years, each of them exists for a period of many _thousands_ of Earth years. But--" He shrugged--"is it too unreasonable to concede this? Has not our Earthly science already suggested that the shortness of our life span may be due to the bombardment of cosmic rays? Here on Magog where they do not live beneath this lethal radiation--" Dr. Bryant's fine features cleared, his eyes lighted raptly. He said, "Then it is not only the _immediate_ existence of our universe for which we are fighting, but another and greater goal. One of which mankind has dreamed for centuries. If we succeed in putting to an end this cosmic radiation, we may win for our people not only life, but--" "Yes," nodded Dr. Kang. "Almost ... eternal life!" CHAPTER XVI Cosmic Allies "Cripes!" said Flick Muldoon, awed. "Eternal life! Golly, that's almost enough time for a guy to catch up on his back sleep." "Or," chuckled O'Day, "really learn how to play a good game of tri-chess.[10] But this is no time to be talking about things like that. The first problem is: how are we going to contact the Magogeans again?"