"Think," he said aloud, reading from an absurd little cardboard sign in his mind.

And immediately he thought of the leak in the hull. What a stupid thing to forget!

Already the air-pressure gauge glowed a warning red.

With a swift, trained motion he poked the smoke button. White tendrils burst out and swirled eerily in the dim light. He watched anxiously as they converged near his feet and vanished, riding invisible currents of escaping air. There he found a bulge in the tough duralumin wall, evidence of a broken stanchion.

Quickly he broke out a rubberoid seal-pad and slammed it into place over the hole, pressing the edges firmly.... Again he pushed the smoke button, and this time the streamers hung uncertainly about. He found there were no more leaks!

He drew a deep lungful of the precious air and felt his muscles relaxing ... and felt a sudden, joyous hope. Since the welded seams of the cabin had held, perhaps even the power plant down below was intact. He had plenty of nuclear fuel; he needed only to get down there to repair the steering vanes, to refill the exhaust-mass tanks with the moon's abundant material. Accidents had been provided for: there was the radiation-shielded pressure suit, crammed into the tiny but adequate airlock.... He had a vision of himself in it, battling the dust like a lunatic.

But could he get out at all?

If he opened the lock, would he be able to dig his way out? Or would the dust flow in, faster than he could push it back? It might jam the door mechanism, flow in around him....

There was a rustling gabble in his earphones, many voices speaking at once. Now one voice came through more clearly as he clicked up the volume.

"... Can you hear us, Jessup? New Mexico speaking.... Can you hear us? Answer, please, answer...."

He felt an overwhelming surge of relief.

"Yes!" he cried. "Yes! This is Jessup!"

He repeated it over and over, deafened himself shouting it, until an excited voice answered, "Thank God! We've finally cleared the air. We get you now. Are you all right? Can we help you? The world is with you...." Interference howled. Rising and falling, another voice intoned: "Do not despair and turn away from God!"

"Think, think—"

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