 Why had Harry left Earth?
The Dwindling Years He didn’t expect to be last—but neither did he anticipate the horror of being the first! By LESTER DEL REY Illustrated by JOHNS NEARLY TWO hundred years of habit carried the chairman of Exodus Corporation through the morning ritual of crossing the executive floor. Giles made the expected comments, smiled the proper smiles and greeted his staff by the right names, but it was purely automatic. Inside his private office, he dropped all pretense and slumped into the padding of his chair, gasping for breath and feeling his heart hammering in his chest. But with the Procyon shuttle arriving yesterday, there was no telling what might turn up. Besides, that fool of a medicist had sworn the shot would cure any allergy or asthma. His normal thinness had looked almost gaunt and there were hollows in his face and circles under his eyes. SHE JERKED her gaze away guiltily and turned to the incoming basket. A personal letter for you, relayed from some place I never heard of. And one of the super-light missiles! They found it drifting half a light-year out and captured it. When she was gone, he sat gazing at the report from Jordan at Research. For eighty years now, they’d been sending out the little ships that vanished at greater than the speed of light, equipped with every conceivable device to make them return automatically after taking pictures of wherever they arrived. So far, none had ever returned or been located. This was the first hope they’d found that the century-long trips between stars in the ponderous shuttles might be ended and he should have been filled with excitement at Jordan’s hasty preliminary report. The little ship apparently had been picked up by accident when it almost collided with a Sirius-local ship. Scientists there had puzzled over it, reset it and sent it back. The two white rats on it had still been alive. Giles dropped the report wearily and picked up the personal message that had come on the shuttle.
 the law stated that he must leave due to overpopulation
 to get married and start a family  the law stated that he must leave due to overpopulation  he had committed a crime that required him to emigrate to another place  he had been born illegally on Earth