Sometimes, a time-lag that long could get a Proxy into trouble before its operator on Earth was aware of it. But usually that was not a big factor of danger on a lifeless world like Mercury. The Proxies, built of the toughest refractory metals, could stand nearly anything but an earthquake, and keep on functioning.

"Each time, there's been no sign of falling rocks or anything like that," Norris told himself, mystified. "Each time, the Proxy has just blacked out with all its controls shot."

Then, as his mind searched for some factor common to all the disasters, a startled look came over Doug Norris' lean, earnest face.

"There were always some of those clouds of radon or whatever they are around, each time!" he thought. "I wonder if—" A red-hot thought brought him to his feet. "Holy cats! Maybe I've got the answer!"

He jumped away from the Proxy-board without a further glance at that bank of intricate controls, and hurried down a corridor.

Through the glass doors he passed, Norris could see the other operators at work. Each sat in front of his control-board, wearing his television helmet, flipping the switches with expert precision. Each was operating a mechanical Proxy somewhere on Mercury.

Norris and all these other operators had been trained together when Kincaid started the Proxy Project. They had been proud of their positions, until recently. It was a vitally important job, searching out the uranium so sorely needed for Earth's atomic power supply.

The uranium and allied metals of Earth had years ago been ransacked and used up. There was little on Venus or Mars. Mercury had much of the precious metal in its cavernous interior. But no man, no matter how ingenious his protection, could live long enough on the terrible, semi-molten Hot Side of Mercury to conduct mining operations.

That was why Kincaid had invented the Proxies. They were machines that could mine uranium where men couldn't go. Crewless ships guided by radar took the Proxies to the Base on Mercury's sunward side. From Base, each Proxy was guided by an Earth operator down into the hot fissures to find and mine the vital radioactive element. The scheme had worked well, until—

"Until we got into those deeper fissures with the Proxies," Doug Norris thought. "Seven wrecked since then! This must be the answer!"

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