That night, on their way to dinner in the galley, the boys were overtaken by the long-striding Mr. Klecker.
“I heard you’re leaving us, gentlemen,” he said to them.
“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Klecker,” Garry replied.
“Too bad. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to talk to you about the old circus days. Yes, it’s too bad.”
Gino, too, showed how much he liked the boys. He baked them special pies and told them that they were his going-away presents to them.
After supper, Patch said to Garry, as they were leaving the galley, “Gee, they’re not making our leaving very easy, are they?”
“No, Patch, they’re not making it very easy at all,” Garry agreed.
“We’re not making what very easy?” asked a voice behind them.
They turned and saw the smiling face of Ben. Garry explained to him what they were talking about.
“Then I guess you don’t want me to say I’m sorry to see you go either, do you?” Ben said.
“Of course we reallydocare,” Garry admitted. “But it makes us sad when everybody tells us.”
“Then, I won’t tell you good-by, fellows,” Ben said. “I’ll just say ‘so long’ for awhile. Before you know it, you’ll come back into space and find us still cruising through the deeps in theCarefree. Yes, we’ll all be here.”
“It does sound better that way, Ben,” Garry replied. “But until then, we’ll still miss all of you terribly.”
“We’ll miss you too,” Ben said quietly, “but we’ll never forget you.”
The boys went to bed with a feeling of melancholy that night, for this was their last sleep aboard Captain Eaton’s wonderland space ship. The thought of leaving these good friends, possibly forever, brought a pang to Garry’s heart. But no matter how sorrowful he felt, he was determined to be brave about it.
Garry fell asleep thinking of all the fun he and Patch had had in the brief happy hours of their stay aboard theCarefree. Since the time passes quickly during slumber, the boy expected he would be awake before he knew it on another quiet morning, and that very soon thereafter he would be bidding good-by to his friends as he and Patch made preparations for the voyage back to earth and the orphanage.
But Garry woke far sooner than he expected. It was not morning, nor was it quiet; the air was charged with confusion and alarm.
Garry was aware of bustling footsteps and urgent voices in the dormitory. His eyes popped open in the bright glare of the lights that had been turned on fully. He had a feeling that it was the middle of the night and not morning, although he was not to find this out until a little later.
Garry sat bolt upright in his bunk. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Gino, hastily pulling on his shirt, paused at Garry’s bunk. His eyes showed the anxiety he felt.
“Hurry and get dressed, Garry!” he said. “You and Patch. We’re in great danger. We’ve got to get ready for the captain’s orders.”
Garry leaped out of bed, his heart thumping swiftly. The cold floor on the soles of his feet shocked him fully awake. He seized his peacefully sleeping buddy and yanked him without mercy.
“Patch, get up! There’s trouble—I don’t know just what kind yet!”
Patch’s eyes were still drugged with sleep, but he struggled to a sitting position.
“Trouble? Wh—what trouble?” Patched muttered.
“I told you I don’t know, but Gino warned us to get ready for the captain’s orders. Hurry! Everyone else is already dressed and out of the dorm!”
Patch needed no more urging and popped out of bed. He and Garry quickly dressed and hurried out into the corridor to see what was going on.
There was no one in sight. The boys went farther along. Then, at the foot of the stairs leading into the center tube, they heard excited voices.
“Whatever it is, it seems to be up in the tunnel,” Garry said. “Let’s go.”
They hurried up the stairs. Reaching the top, Garry, who was in the lead, looked down the tunnel from which most of the sounds were coming. He saw Ben, Captain Eaton, Mr. Klecker, and Gino on or near the platform outside the flight deck, the door of which was closed.
Garry and Patch pulled their weightless bodies along the webbing of the tube. As they approached the men, they heard Ben saying:
“This is terrible! Poor Mac! And what’s going to happen to the rest of us?”
“What is going to happen?” Garry asked, as he and Patch came upon the scene.
Captain Eaton turned to them with a distraught look. “I’m sorry, boys. If I had hastened to get you back to the space station promptly, you would have survived this—this disaster.”
“Disaster?” Garry echoed, with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Yes,” Captain Eaton answered, his voice shaking. “Mac is already done for, and we shall soon follow after him.”
“What happened?” Patch asked Mr. Klecker.
The boys could see pain on the men’s faces.
“TheCarefreecollided with anExplorersatellite,” the butler replied. “It destroyed the flight deck while Mac was on duty. It looks as if he had managed to close the door before he was swept off into space. The collision knocked us off course, and we’re plunging into space—toward where, no one knows. We can’t so much as lift a finger to bring her under control, and our antenna disk has been damaged so that we can’t even send an SOS.”
“Oh, no!” was all Garry could say, sickened at the sudden fateful turn of events.
Actually, he was thinking more of poor Mac than he was of their own grim outlook. He remembered how much the likable Scotsman wanted to return to the heather of his own land after his stint in space. Now he would never see Scotland again. Garry absently watched Ben squirting a thick liquid around the cracks of the flight-deck door, probably as a safeguard against air escaping from the ship.
“Ben has been outside in a pressure suit to look over the damage,” Captain Eaton said.
Patch turned away from the others, hanging his head in grief and despair. Captain Eaton put an arm around Garry’s shoulder, but there was a helpless look on his face that seemed to show the uselessness of saying anything. Gino had lost his usual cheery smile and could only stare numbly at the closed door of the flight deck, where their friend had been the victim of such a cruel act of fate.
Garry looked around at the ship’s company. Everyone was accounted for except Isaac.
“Where’s Mr. Newton?” he asked.
“Poor Isaac is completely crushed,” Captain Eaton replied. “He had just changed shifts with Mac at the pilot’s chair only a few moments before the accident. He’s blaming himself for the whole thing. It seems he overlooked the position of the satellite that hit us. He missed it on his last check, and Mac did not see it in time. Isaac’s gone off somewhere.”
It was indeed a dark moment aboard the once-happy vessel. Things had happened so swiftly that everyone appeared to be still in shock. No one spoke again for several minutes. Everyone just stood around idly, as if not knowing what to do next and not really caring.
Ben was the first to try to rally everyone’s deadened spirits. He had just finished sealing the cracks in the door.
“It’ll be some time before we can tell which way the ship is heading. The collision changed our course completely. Even when we do find out, there’s nothing we can do to control theCarefree. She’s just a runaway. But I still think there’s hope for us.”
All eyes turned upon Ben questioningly.
“That flier you two arrived in, Garry,” Ben continued. “I’ve only had a quick look inside it, and the console seemed in pretty bad shape from your and Patch’s efforts to start the engines. However, if I’m lucky and we have time before theCarefreehits another satellite or something, I may be able to fix it up so that we can escape in it.”
“It’s our only hope,” Captain Eaton replied. “I suggest you get right on the job, Ben, and call on anyone you need to help you. Meanwhile, we’ll sweat out the flight, although I must say I feel like a duck in a shooting gallery because of all the flying objects whirling out there all around us.”
“If we are able to escape in the flier,” Mr. Klecker said, “we can use its radio to send for help.”
Ben shook his head. “The radio was removed for some reason. There’s only the empty compartment it came out of.”
With faint hope of survival, some measure of good spirits was restored to the astronauts. Ben called upon Mr. Klecker to help him work on the space taxi, and Captain Eaton said he would go to the observatory to take a “fix” and try to determine the course theCarefreehad taken.
“I’ll have to change clothes,” Mr. Klecker said. “I don’t want to get my uniform soiled.”
“Guess I’ll go and whip up some breakfast,” Gino said. “That’s about allIcan do, although maybe nobody will be hungry.”
Captain Eaton turned to Garry and Patch before he left. “I know it’s going to be hard for you,” he said, “but try to feel hopeful about this situation. A terrible misfortune has come our way, but try to believe that things will work out for us. Chins up, eh, fellows?”
He forced a smile. The boys gave him a brave smile in return, although they did not feel it any more than he had.
“May we go with you to the observatory, Captain?” Patch asked. “Maybe we can help.”
“Yes, if you like. I know how hard it will be to remain idle at a time like this. Let’s go.”
In the observatory, Garry and Patch watched the captain at his telescope and other instruments. He worked for a little while, then turned away from his work with a brooding, disturbed look on his face. He stroked his neat beard. Then he worked again for several more minutes.
He stopped once more, but then resumed his watching. He kept this up for some time, and, as the minutes passed, his face grew more and more serious.
Garry was afraid to ask, but he felt that he had to know. “Captain, is—is it bad?” he said softly.
Captain Eaton shook his head grimly, the look of despair in his eyes.
“You may as well know,” he replied. “I’ve been hoping I was wrong, but now I know I’m not. We’re moving into the gravity field of the moon. My guess is that we’re only a few hours away from collision.”
This latest bad news filled Garry with a new dread. But he refused to give up hope. He remembered that Ben was working in the flier, trying to put it in shape.
“Captain Eaton,” he asked, “do you think Ben will have the flier ready by the time we begin falling to the moon?”
“I couldn’t even guess at that. If there’s not too much wrong with the flier, he may get it repaired in short order. But a major repair—I just don’t know. I guess the next thing now is to inform the men of our course and get Ben’s estimate of the flier’s damage.”
The three of them joined Ben and Mr. Klecker in the flier a few moments later. The small rocket ship was still held fast to the biggerCarefree, their two air locks joined as if they were one ship.
When Captain Eaton had told the men that they were headed for the moon, whether they liked it or not, Ben replied, “Well, Captain, I suppose we’ve justgotto get the space taxi in shape in mighty short order. I don’t imagine theCarefreewill bounce very well on the moon’s hard, rocky surface.”
“Do you really think you can get it repaired in time, Ben?” Captain Eaton asked gravely.
“How much time do you think you can give me?” Ben asked.
“I’ll have to do some more calculating before I can estimate exactly how long it will be before we go into final fall,” was the reply, “but, offhand, I would say you’ve got no longer than six hours.”
Ben looked at the damaged control panel of the flier and shook his head.
“Impossible,” he said, “but I’ll do it. I’vegotto do it.”
“Everyone on the ship will be at your disposal, Ben,” Captain Eaton said. “Call for anyone and anything at all that you need in order to hurry those repairs. Ben, there’s no one else I’d rather trust with the lives of us all than you. You can’t let us down.”
“That confidence means a lot, Captain,” Ben replied, his expression showing the appreciation he felt. “Mac gave his life for the ship. I’d do no less if it meant saving theCarefreeand all you guys.”
“I know you mean what you say, Ben,” Captain Eaton said, “but we won’t call on you to go that far. Just get the flier in shape so that we can escape in it and not share theCarefree’s fate in crashing on the moon.”
Ben shook his head sadly. “I hadn’t thought of theCarefreeplunging to her destruction. But weknowthat’s got to happen, don’t we, because there’s no way of saving her. Captain, this ship has become such a part of my life that I’d almost want to go down with her.”
“I feel the same way, Ben,” Captain Eaton replied. “Life will never be the same again without theCarefree. I don’t know how I’ll get along without her deck beneath my feet.”
“If we get out of this alive,” Mr. Klecker said, “we’ll just have to return to earth and spend the rest of our days there.”
“That’s true,” the captain agreed sadly. “Even a millionaire is allowed a space ship as grand as this only once in a lifetime. I couldn’t afford another.”
Ben seemed to realize that precious time was going to waste as they talked, and he began getting his tools together.
“I know everyone wants to help,” he said, “but I think that Kleck and I can work better together by ourselves just now. There’ll be less confusion. I’ll be sure to call on anyone else if he’s needed.”
Mr. Klecker had donned some old clothes, but he did not look comfortable in them.
Ben listed more tools and equipment he would need, and Captain Eaton gave the list to Garry.
“Take this to Isaac, will you, Garry, and ask him to round these up as quickly as possible. I’ve got to get back to the observatory and see how much time there is to zero hour.”
“Isaac has taken Mac’s loss pretty badly, Captain,” Ben said. “Do you think he’ll be working at top efficiency?”
“I think it will do him good to have something to do,” the captain replied. “He’ll be of no use to himself, or us either, if he just keeps on brooding.”
Captain Eaton and the boys left the flier and went their separate ways to take care of their respective duties. Garry and Patch went to the dormitory and found Isaac Newton sitting on one of the lower bunks, his head in his hands. They stood beside the bunk for several moments, waiting for Isaac to look up, but he did not seem to know that there was anyone else around.
“Isaac,” Garry then said, “Ben needs a few things for the repair of the flier. The captain thought you could round them up for us.”
Isaac still did not look up.
“Isaac, we’re headed for the moon,” Patch said urgently. “We’vegotto get the flier repaired within six hours, or we’re all goners!”
Finally, Isaac looked up, his gentle eyes red. “It’s all my fault,” he said. “It’s all my fault that Mac is dead! I didn’t tell him about the satellite, and I should have. I ought to be shot like a soldier for neglecting his duty.”
“You shouldn’t blame yourself, Isaac,” Garry said gently. “Anyone could have made the same mistake.”
Isaac shook his head, as if pulling himself together, and held out his hand. “Let me have the list.”
He looked it over, climbed to his feet, and started out of the dormitory.
“Gee, heistaking it hard, isn’t he?” Patch asked.
Garry nodded. “I can imagine how he feels. How many times have you made a mistake that you’d give anything in the world to correct if you could? But with us, our mistakes have never cost a person his life.”
Isaac came back into the room. “One of the things on this list is the sealer gun. It must still be up there by the flight-deck door that was sealed to prevent the air leaking out. Will you fellows get it?”
“Sure, Isaac,” Garry replied. “Come on, Patch.”
As they pulled themselves along the center tunnel, Patch remarked, “Isaac didn’t want to go back up there. That’s why he asked us to get the sealer gun.”
“I think you’re right,” Garry replied. “But it will save him some time just the same.”
Reaching the platform in front of the flight deck, the boys stepped up onto the magnetized area. All at once Garry was struck by the awesome silence of this part of the ship. Along with this was the remembrance of the tragedy that had taken place beyond the door in front of them, and he had a lonesome, shivery feeling.
Patch seemed to feel it too.
“Let’s hurry up and get out of here,” he said. “It’s kind of spooky here all by ourselves.”
“I don’t see the sealer gun anywhere, do you?” Garry asked.
“No. Maybe somebody carried it away with them.”
There was a well of darkness beneath the platform. Both boys glanced at one another. They knew that was the next place to look.
“It may be down there someplace,” Garry said. “We’ll have to take a look.”
“How could it be down there?” Patch argued, not enjoying the prospect. “There’s no gravity here in the tube. Things don’tfallin here like they do in the rest of the ship.”
“It may have been shoved off in that direction,” Garry said. “That could easily have happened in all the excitement up here. Time’s wasting, Patch. If you’re scared, I’ll poke around down there.”
“It’s not that I’m exactly scared,” Patch protested weakly.
Garry held onto the railing and swung his feet off the magnetized-platform floor so that he floated weightlessly in the air. Then he began pulling himself down into the darkness, using the metal lattice-work that extended below the platform.
“How can you see down there?” Patch called from above. “Want me to get a light for you?”
“I’ll feel around a little first,” Garry answered. “I may put my hand right on it.”
With one hand holding onto the metal stripping, Garry fanned his free arm back and forth along the floor. All he felt was cold smooth metal—at first.
Then, suddenly, he felt something soft to his touch. A chill raced up his backbone, ending in a prickle at the top of his head. He swallowed, then courageously began feeling around again on the object, trying to identify it. His hand touched flesh, warm flesh, and he could trace the outline of five fingers. He felt that chill again, but he fought to keep his nerves under control.
“Hey, What’s going on?” Patch called. “Have you found something?”
Garry pulled himself back up to the platform and hung onto the rail, shaking.
“Garry,” Patch said, “you’re white as you can be!”
“I found something all right, Patch. There’s apersondown there,” Garry whispered.
Leaving a bewildered and frightened Patch behind him, Garry left the platform and began pulling himself as rapidly as possible along the webbing of the tube toward the ship’s stern. Reaching the observatory bubble, he went in.
“Captain Eaton!” Garry gasped. “I think I’ve found him! I think I’ve found Mac!”
The captain swung from an instrument he was using, and looked at Garry in amazement. “Youwhat?” he cried.
Garry pulled himself into the observatory, the floor taking hold of the soles of his shoes by its magnetic attraction. “Yes, Sir!” he declared. “Patch and I were looking for the sealing gun in front of the flight deck, and I found a body in the darkness below the platform!”
Captain Eaton clicked across the floor and entered the tube. Garry tagged along behind, as the skipper of theCarefreeset out toward the bow of the ship.
A few minutes later, Captain Eaton was checking on Garry’s discovery. Then he came back onto the platform, excitement showing on his face.
“ItisMac!” he burst out. “His body is warm, and I think he may be alive! We must call some of the others so that we can get him up from there. In this zero gravity it will take several of us.”
Garry and Patch were sent by the captain to round up the others.
Then several began helping to get Mac onto the platform. Of course he weighed nothing, but, in the zero gravity, the difficulty in moving him lay in the fact that the others could not push him without bracing some part of their own body against something. Otherwise, they would only succeed in pushing themselves backward.
Mac was finally moved onto the platform and stretched out. He lay, suspended in air, a few inches above the platform. Captain Eaton looked at the Scotsman’s eyes and tested his pulse.
“His pulse is a little slow,” he stated, “but his color is good, and I think he’ll come around pretty soon. That bad gash on his forehead must have knocked him out.”
They worked over Mac. Finally, he stirred and then opened his eyes. He stared as if unseeing for several moments, but then, as he began to recognize everybody, a weak smile formed on his lips.
“What happened?” he murmured.
“We don’t know what happened, Mac,” Captain Eaton replied. “Can you tell us? Can you remember what did happen before you blacked out?”
Mac frowned, as if concentrating very hard. Then his face relaxed.
“I remember,” he said softly. “I was near the door when it hit us—whatever it was. If I’d been in the pilot’s chair I would have been a goner. But I had gotten up only a moment before to check the chart. The door was open. I heard a terrific roar and saw the whole console burst into a sheet of fire. At the same time I felt myself being blown backward and right through the door onto the platform. I was dazed, but somehow I had the presence of mind to know I had to get that door shut or the ship would lose all her air. I managed to press the button and saw it slide shut. But then my head began to hurt terrifically and I felt dizzy. I reached out for the railing to hold on, but I guess I missed it then and unconsciously floated off to wherever you found me.”
“Garry found you,” Captain Eaton said. “We thought you had been blown into space by the collision.”
“Thanks, Garry,” Mac said, winking at him with gratitude.
“That’s all right,” Garry replied. “We’re just so glad to see that you’re still alive.”
“Mac, don’t ever scare me again like that!” Isaac put in, his voice shaky with emotion. “It was my fault the collision happened, because I overlooked the satellite that hit us. I knew your death was on me, and I was so torn up I don’t think I’d ever have gotten over it. Thanks, buddy, for turning up as you did!”
“Forget it, Isaac,” Mac joked. “Maybe you can return the favor sometime.”
They told Mac about the existing crisis. He wanted to do something to help, but Captain Eaton insisted that he go to the dormitory to rest. Garry and Patch went with Captain Eaton to the observatory to recheck and see how much time theCarefreehad left.
After another period of figuring and using his instruments, the skipper turned to the boys. “I wish I had better news, but it looks as if we have less time than I had thought at first.”
The boys returned with Captain Eaton to the flier. Isaac had taken over helping Ben, since he knew more about this kind of thing than Mr. Klecker.
Captain Eaton stood at the door of the air lock. “How are you coming in there?” he asked.
Ben gave him a report of their progress. The captain’s face was lined and grave. “You may have to do better than that if we’re going to get out of this alive,” he said. “The moon is very close.”
Captain Eaton and the boys spent the time that followed in the observatory dome, watching the steadily growing disk of the moon. It was like a mocking face in the sky, luring the travelers to destruction.
No telescope was needed, for the big, rocky satellite of earth appeared to take up the whole heavens. Garry and Patch studied the knife-edged mountaintops, the dry, gray wildernesses that were once thought to be seas, and the mysterious bowl-like craters. Where would theCarefreeplunge to her death on the fierce moonscape, Garry wondered. And would he and the others still be aboard her when she crashed? Garry shuddered at the thought. As Captain Eaton had said, Luna was now so frightfully close.
The captain made a final check of his instruments. Then he turned abruptly, heading for the door. The boys followed him out.
In the flier, moments later, the captain said, “Ben, we’re in our last hour. How do things look in here?”
Garry could see Ben’s grimy, tired face turned toward Captain Eaton.
“It’ll be close, Captain, awfully close,” Ben answered, and immediately turned back to the network of wiring in the instrument panel.
“Anything I can do, Ben?” Captain Eaton asked.
“Just hope and pray,” was the reply. “I think it’ll be all up to me now. It’s a one-man job getting these wires hooked up.”
“We could take one last look around the ship during this last hour,” Mr. Klecker proposed. “I have some books I want to take along.”
“Sorry, Kleck,” Ben said, “but we won’t have room for them. The flier will be crowded as it is. We won’t be able to take belongings of any kind, not even for survival, except for the emergency supplies the flier itself carries. The weight is that critical.”
“I don’t want a last look,” Gino spoke up. “Otherwise I might not want to leave the good oldCarefree, even if she is going to crash.”
“Me either,” Isaac Newton added. “I want to remember her the way she was when all of us were very happy and really carefree.”
“One thing about Patch and me,” Garry put in. “We came aboard without anything but the clothes we’re wearing, and we’ll be leaving the same way.”
“There’s one thing I surely hate to leave behind,” Captain Eaton said. “Katrinka. She’s only a robot, but I’ve had her for so long that she’s almost like a member of the family.”
From now on, every minute was beginning to count desperately. Garry wished he could hold back the hands of the clock. He wished he could give Ben an extra hour. But this could not be.
A little later there came the announcement that Garry had known must be coming finally. Captain Eaton had been in the observatory for the last time, and now he had returned with a final announcement: “It’s now or never, Ben. Which is it?”
Ben straightened up, and there was a pleased look on his weary face. “Just finished, Captain. The instrument panel isn’t as good as new, but I’m pretty sure the flier can be navigated by it, at least long enough for a safe landing on Luna. Come here, Mac. Let me show you a few things about the console.”
Garry wondered why Ben was taking time to instruct Mac in the navigation of the ship. Why couldn’t he do the piloting himself? Garry could see that Mac was a little puzzled too, as he went over to the instrument panel.
Captain Eaton was looking at his wrist watch. “Ben, there’s no more time. We’ve got to get off theCarefreewithin five minutes, not a second longer.”
After a few more hurried moments of instruction, Ben said, “We’re ready, Captain. Everybody into the rocket.”
Those who were not already in filed into the rocket and belted down into the seats. That is, everybody but one—Ben.
“Ben, where are you going?” Captain Eaton asked.
“To check on the air lock, Sir,” Ben answered, and walked through the flier’s doorway into the air lock between the two ships.
Mac had belted down in the pilot’s seat, as Ben had asked him to do.
“How are you going to ride without a seat, Ben?” Mac called.
“Everybody ready?” Ben called from the air lock.
All answered that they were.
“Start the motors, Mac,” Ben said.
Mac started the rocket motors, at the same time calling, “Hurry up, Ben!”
Garry heard a whirring sound, and the outer door of the flier slid shut, with Ben still in the air lock beyond!
“Hey, wait!” Isaac shouted. “Ben’s in the air lock, and the door’s closed!”
No one could do anything, for in the very next moment the flier kicked out violently sideways, bending everyone over in his seat. There was another jerk forward as the flier went into motion.
“What’s happened?” Captain Eaton called.
“Ben’s tricked us!” Mac replied. “He cut off the magnetic grapples from the air lock that held us fast to theCarefree. How stupid I was! He told me to take over while he checked on some last-minute things.”
“I see it all,” Isaac added. “If we check the weights we’ll probably find out that we would be overloaded with one more passenger. Ben was that one more, and he chose not to come aboard rather than risk the safety of the rest of us!”
“Yes,” the captain said in a choked voice, “it seems that Ben elected to go down with theCarefree.”
Ben lost to them!
Garry could hardly believe it. Surely Ben could have foundsomeway to save himself. Did he really have to make such a costly sacrifice?
No one aboard the flier cared to speak for several minutes after Mac’s tragic announcement. It had come as a devastating blow to all of them.
Finally, Isaac broke the solemn quiet: “It won’t be the same with good old Ben gone. He was a smart, brave guy. I’d like to have an ounce of all the scientific and mechanical knowledge he had.”
They had been so concerned over Ben’s fate that they had almost overlooked the fact that the rocky wilderness of the moon was staring them in the face; that in a few moments the flier would be either touching down on her surface or crashing along with theCarefreeand Ben, her only human occupant.
Mac was guiding the craft into a slowly descending spiral. This would give the flier’s braking rockets time to reduce speed to safe level for the touchdown.
TheCarefreewas not in sight, although Garry searched the starry sky through the plastic walls of the flier. He was glad he could not find her. He would not have liked to see her crash.
Down below, Garry could see the huge dish of a giant crater. It was within this area that Mac was circling. As if anticipating Garry’s question, Mac explained: “Ben suggested that we try landing on the floor of this crater, which is called Hornfield. It was discovered by a lunar explorer in 1983. It is supposed to be covered by several inches of pumice dust, and that may help to break our fall if we make a bad touchdown.”
From high up, the walls of the crater did not appear very impressive, but as the flier spiraled lower, they looked like lofty battlements of ancient castles.
As they dipped lower still, Garry watched those grim crater walls close in around the small space craft. Spread out below was the ocean of gray dust that carpeted the crater floor. Part way up, above the horizon, was seen the distant globe of earth. It cast ghostly greenish shadows around the walls, pits, and rock formations. This was the two-week period of night on Luna, and the temperature down there, in a nearly airless atmosphere, Garry knew, was more than two hundred degrees below zero.
“Everyone make sure his restraining belts are tight,” Mac called. “We’re about to touchdown.”
The ground rushed up to meet them, as Garry felt himself tipped forward in his seat. The belly of the little flier skimmed the ocean of dust, sending it up in a giant cloud along both sides of the craft. The flier continued to plow along through the pumice until friction finally brought it to a halt.
It was strange being still again, Garry thought. Another strange feeling was the gravity pull of the moon, which he knew to be only one sixth as strong as that of earth.
“Is everybody all right?” Captain Eaton asked.
No one said that hewasn’tall right. Garry and Patch began unfastening their restraining belts, as did the others.
Captain Eaton was the first to his feet. He moved over to the window with a strange floating sort of step owing to his reduced moon weight. Then he looked out.
“Where are we, Mac?” he asked.
“Inside the Hornfield crater,” Mac answered.
“Are there any settlements close by?” the captain asked. “Anybody who can come to our rescue?”
“About twenty-five miles to the southwest, captain,” Mac answered. “Ben told me just where it was and advised me to land as close to it as possible. I thought this was as close as we dared approach, because the ground is treacherous between Hornfield and the settlement.”
“What sort of settlement is it, Mac?” Isaac asked.
“An oxygen-mining outfit in the Taurus Mountains. They’re mining for ore rich in oxygen to provide pressurized air for the underground terminal of Luna City, five hundred miles farther to the south. Ben said he thought they would have fliers that could get here in a short time as soon as they got our radio message.”
“But we don’t have any radio,” Mr. Klecker said.
“Yes we do, and we can thank the flier’s lifesaving equipment for that,” Captain Eaton said.
He went to a cabinet built into the wall and pulled out an oblong box. On the top of it were the words: “SOS Automatic Transmitter.”
“You mean that was in the flier all this time and that we could have used it earlier ourselves?” Garry asked in surprise.
“Yes, you could have,” Captain Eaton replied.
“I’m familiar with this transmitter,” the captain went on. “Let’s get the radio kit down.”
When this was done, Captain Eaton donned one of the two space suits which the flier carried. When he was dressed, he entered the flier’s air lock, carrying the radio kit. Those inside the ship watched Captain Eaton walk about fifty feet from the flier and open the box containing the transmitter.
“Gee, why does he have to open it up out there?” Patch wanted to know. “Couldn’t he transmit from inside the ship just as easy?”
“No, not nearly as well,” Mac explained. “Just watch, and you’ll see why!”
Captain Eaton took some things out of the box, and then, after tinkering with them for a few minutes, he set the transmitter in the pumice dust and ran back toward the flier as if he had just lighted a bomb fuse. A few seconds later the boys were surprised to see something resembling a giant snake spring from the ground beside the transmitter and extend straight up in the dark sky!
“What in the world was that?” Patch asked in amazement.
“That’s the antenna for the transmitter, isn’t it, Mac?” Garry asked.
Mac nodded. “That long ropelike thing is hollow, and the antenna is in the middle of it. Captain Eaton released a switch that caused the casing to fill with compressed air, and that is what keeps it extended into the sky. That gives us a much better antenna than we could possibly have in here. Also, being as tall as it is, the radio waves leaving it can travel great distances and cross high places which they could not do if it were short. Understand?”
The boys nodded.
“The transmitter is a very light and simple one,” Mac went on. “All it can do is send out an SOS signal from time to time; it can’t transmit words. Yet whoever picks it up can easily trace it. I hope our signal will carry as far as the mining settlement and that there’s no interference between to block our radio waves. Those mountains could block the waves.”
“How long do you think we can hold out, just in case our rescue is slow in coming?” Garry asked Mac.
“If we carefully ration food, water, and air, I’d say we could last about five days, earth time,” Mac replied. “I’m pretty sure the captain will start rationing right away, just to make sure, but I can’t see any reason why we won’t see a rescue flier heading this way pretty soon, certainly by tomorrow.”
Captain Eaton presently came back inside and began taking off his space suit.
“If we get out of this alive, we’ll owe it all to Ben,” Isaac remarked.
Garry noticed the sudden sadness on the faces of the others at the mention of Ben’s name. Presently, everyone in turn began saying something good about their friend; that is, everyone except Captain Eaton, whom Garry knew had been closer to Ben than any of the others.
The captain was still plainly too broken up to say anything about Ben at this time. He just quietly finished removing his pressure-suit gear, and Garry could see the tragedy in his eyes. Garry was glad when Captain Eaton changed the subject, because he himself had grown very fond of the brilliant young spaceman.
“We should take inventory of our stock,” the captain was saying, “and then start a rationing schedule. We can’t be sure how long we’ll have to wait before help comes. I don’t want to alarm everybody, but there’s always the possibility of radioactivity or mineral deposits in the hills beyond the crater which would keep our SOS from going through. The moon is full of those things.”
Mac’s prediction as to how long the food and water would last turned out to be fairly close, although it turned out to be four days instead of five. No one expected the fourth day to roll around with their still being trapped in the flier, but Captain Eaton was playing safe, as Mac had said he probably would do.