* * * * * They sat and thought about it. The rocket was now fifteen hundred miles up, climbing swiftly. "For one thing," Moore said, "we are lighter. What do they call it? Gravity? Gravity is less." "I don't like it," cried Jones. "I don't like it at all!" "What?" Moore looked at him. Jones stared back, frightened. "It's nothing like I thought it would be. Maybe we'll get so light there won't be anything left! Where is everything? It's so empty it don't make sense. Something's wrong, Bob. Let's try to turn back before we die like the others! I don't want to die! I want--" Moore reached over and slapped the other's face, hard. Jones focused glassy, unsteady eyes, surprised and hurt. "Why did you do that?" "You called me yellow a while ago," Moore said, disgusted. "Now it's you who are acting like a woman or a child. You would really kill us, trying to turn back at this velocity." "I'm still afraid," Jones said, but not wildly. "I don't know what's happening to me. I can remember things that happened years ago; things I hardly noticed. I'm starting to understand things I never understood before, and some of the things are hard to take." "Don't you think I feel it, too?" Moore looked out at space in a new way, understanding. For a while there was silence, a little strained, while the rocket sped another thousand miles. After that it was not so strained. It was more an atmosphere of concentration, of two men, thinking within themselves. There was no more fear. "So this is what happened to the others," Moore said finally. "But what do we have to fear?" Jones shrugged. "I'm not afraid anymore, but maybe I should be." He leaned back and looked at Moore. "Have you any idea what is happening to us?" "I'm not sure," Moore frowned. "It's as if some great obstacle to clear thinking has been removed. Have you noticed how we have been speaking? Our memory has so improved that we are able to use words we may have seen or heard used only a few times. And the new sharpness of mind that enables us to use these words properly also makes us able to grasp quickly new ideas and to reason logically. As to what causes the change, I do not know." "I have been thinking about gravity," said Jones, reflecting. "It seems to me that the change in mental power is just about inversely proportioned to change in gravity. That might, in some way, have something to do with it." Moore sighed, frowning. "You may be right. But, granting that you are, we are still in the dark as to the nature of the danger we must face." "I think I'm beginning to get some idea," said Jones. "I wouldn't be surprised if my first crude idea, in a way, was very nearly right." Moore showed surprise. "You still think those others found someone out here who made them kings, or some such?" He laughed. "Not exactly," Jones said. "But there may be even stranger things." And he would say no more. * * * * *