the Shepards, with their precious knowledge and serum. Thinking of them brought Toby up out of his seat.

Toby’s fumbling hand found the lift stick. As the rocket angled up from the frost-bitten ground, he saw a racing blur of Lunar landscape, pumice drifts, and buildings so near he could almost have reached out and touched them. It was such a close call that it left Toby shaking. The rocket scurried off over the barren land like a frightened bird.

Toby heard a clatter down the aisle. He turned and saw Dr. Shepard being flung about like a chip on an ocean. Toby staggered down the passageway after him. Necessarily rough, he shoved the doctor back into the seat from which he had unbuckled himself, and strapped him tightly. Deb was a pale ghost still buckled down beside him, her eyes wide in terror, her body tense as a coiled spring.

“Make him stay put!” Toby ordered and slipped and slid back to the front. As the rugged moonscape swept dazzlingly across the port, Toby headed the rocket’s nose upward again. A nauseating giddiness was threatening to overcome him. Toby shook his head vigorously and hung on.

When the rocket had lifted high over the planet, he began “purging” the jet chambers, a procedure sometimes effective in pulling them out of a state of jamming. The action consisted of alternately giving the tubes a sudden full thrust, followed by a few moments of total inactivity. At each burst, Toby felt as if his head would be snapped off his neck. At last he sensed that the jets were working freely. This was confirmed by a glance at the instrument panel.

Once again he headed the ship in for a landing. He felt the rhythmic jerks of the firestreams in normal braking thrust, and he sighed in relief. Some minutes later the rocket touched down gently on the soil of the moon. They were safe.

Toby helped the bruised and shaken Shepards into space suits and got them outside. He felt pretty badly mauled himself and thought he’d keel over at any moment as he saw the eternal stars of the Lunar sky grow dim before his eyes. Then someone gave him a supporting arm into the waiting room of the spaceport.

It was some time before Toby felt like himself. He found that he and the Shepards, coming to full consciousness themselves, were surrounded by people.

“I’ve been in the space service a long time,” Toby heard someone say, “but that was the slickest landing I’ve ever seen! That young fellow must 

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