"When the smoke cleared all I could see at first was a shattered something lying on the floor of the cave, all twisted and bent back on itself like a smoking heap of shattered glass.
"As I shook my big, dull head to clear it my boy-self lifted off his helmet and returned his blaster to the holster on his hip. His face was shining with triumph. The sweat was running off it and he was breathing heavily.
"But he spoke to me and his words were good to hear.
"'We got him, pal!'
"He didn't say 'it'—didn't refer to the monstrous creature as something unspeakably alien.
"No—why should he? To him it wasn't a horror in the valley of the moon. It was something out of a nightmare and he knew he'd wake up safe in his own little bed at home.
"He was still thinking of me as his father—in a nightmare. We'd been hunting jabberwocks together!
"And that lad was still in me—a part of me! I tell you, it sobered me and made me feel ashamed.
"I was still feeling ashamed when both the boy and the old one vanished. Perhaps melted back would be a better way of putting it. For they did seem to dissolve and flow back, rush back, into me an instant before I found myself standing alone again—in that valley that would never grow old!"
Charley had arisen and was standing by the fire. Suddenly he stooped and threw another log into the flames.