"I'm getting tired," said Ileth in a small voice. He took his eyes from the strange animal, studied the girl. The emotional turmoil which they'd been through had drained her of strength. Her features were white, drawn, her lids drooping over her hazel-green eyes. Her lashes, he thought, were the thickest curliest lashes he'd ever seen and black as her lustrous hair. He felt a tenderness well up inside him and banished it. "We've got to make the ship. Walk until you drop. Then I'll carry you. But we have to get back as soon as possible." Her features stiffened at the harshness of his words. He caught a weary flash of anger in her thoughts, then she turned and began to plod again toward the southwest. "Faster," said Saxon. Alpha Centauri B was setting when they reached the domed hill which Saxon had lined up with the compass. He left Ileth stretched exhausted at the base and climbed to the summit. His eyes swept the horizons with the last orange rays of the sun, but the _Shooting Star_ was still not in sight. By the time he rejoined Ileth, it was dark. "Did you see it?" the girl asked in a sleepy voice. "No. We haven't come far enough, I suppose. We'll have to wait until Proxima rises before we can go on. That'll give us a chance to rest. How long before Proxima comes up?" "Ten or fifteen minutes." She hesitated. "I'm cold." Saxon put his arms around the shivering girl, pulled her against him. She gave a little sigh, laid her head on his shoulder. He caught her sleepy thoughts, "_Two times two is four. Three times two is six_," and chuckled to himself. The darkness was not dispelled very much when Proxima rose above the hills like a sullen red hot drop of metal. The light was red and wavering like the shimmering heat waves above a brush fire. Saxon could not see very well or very far. Nevertheless he wakened Ileth. She rubbed her eyes, glanced about her in consternation. The change in light had brought about a startling change in the scenery. It looked as if it were bathed in blood. She said, "Oh, Jon, I wish we were home. I wish we'd never come on this horrible expedition." He didn't look up from his compass. "The ship can't be much further." He spotted the black gash of a gully a hundred yards ahead. "We'll walk to the gully, then pick out another object." "I'm still tired. I don't feel as if I'd slept at all." "You didn't--much. Only about ten minutes. Come on." They reached the gully and Saxon found a cone-shaped hill looming up redly almost a quarter of a mile further on. They set out for it, Ileth holding his hand. Their progress was necessarily slower because Saxon had to stop often and consult the compass. Even so, he began to be afraid that they had overshot the ship in the dark. Slowly Proxima Centauri blazed its blood red path across the night sky. Not far from Proxima a star twinkled faintly, steadily. It was about in the position that Sol should be. He wondered if it was. "It's growing lighter," said Ileth.