Those dwindling years had been precious once. He unexpectedly recalled his own grandfather holding him on an old knee and slipping him candy that was forbidden. The years seemed precious to the old man then. Amanda’s voice came abruptly over the intercom. “Jordan wants to talk to you,” she said, and the irritation was sharp in her voice. “He won’t take no!” Giles shrugged and reached for the projector, to cut it off. Then, on impulse, he set it back to the picture, studying the group again as he switched on Jordan’s wire. But he didn’t wait for the hot words about whatever was the trouble. “Bill,” he said, “start getting the big ship into production. I’ve found a volunteer.” He’d been driven to it, he knew, as he watched the man’s amazed face snap from the screen. From the first suspicion of his trouble, something inside him had been forcing him to make this decision. And maybe it would do no good. Maybe the ship would fail. But thirty years was a number a man could risk. If he made it, though.... Well, he’d see those grandchildren of his this year—and Harry. Maybe he’d even tell Harry the truth, once they got done celebrating the reunion. And there’d be other grandchildren. With the ship, he’d have time enough to look them up. Plenty of time! Thirty years was a long time, when he stopped to think of it. —LESTER DEL REY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note Italicized phrases are presented by surrounding the text with _underscores_. This etext was produced from Galaxy January 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. The cover belongs to the entire publication, and does not particularly relate to this etext. Minor changes in presentation have been made from the layout of the original paper publication. Punctuation has been normalized. Variations in hyphenation have been retained as they were in the original publication. The following assumed printer's errors were corrected: possitively —> positively He’d developed one the finest —> He’d developed one of the finest End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dwindling Years, by Lester Del Rey