A whiff of other for ex-marine Captain Stephens, when he stumbles upon a cult of immortals in an old Californian house which also contains within its bowels a crashed space-ship and robot brain. Since the U.S. is faced with an atomic war to be launched by Lorillia (Russia ?) which the cult knows will destroy the earth, all move to abandon this sphere save Stephens who with Mistra- ""beautiful beyond the dreams of man""- survives the ordeal, van Vogt, well established in this field, is here far more accessible than in his World of A