if we'd been married for years.

In spite of that, it was amazing how little ground we could manage to cover in fifteen hours, and how little sleep we could get in the other nine and a half.

Helene stuck to the "valleys" as much as she could, which saved the equipment, but not the time. She couldn't avoid all the hills. Every so often, we'd run into a long, gradual rise, which terminated in a sharp drop-off. The tractor wasn't safe at an angle of over forty degrees. It took anywhere from half a day to a day and a half for the 'dozer to chew out a slot that the tractor could get down.

That was hard enough on us, but having to talk so much made it even worse. We were usually all but at each other's throats by the time the day's run was over. I usually spent three or four hours writhing in my bunk before I finally dozed off. I very seldom heard Helene twisting about in the bunk above me.

The hills ended as abruptly as they began, after less than two hours driving on the thirty-fourth day. We still had almost eighteen hundred miles to go.

"Clear ahead," Helene called back. "How fast?"

We both knew we couldn't possibly make it in the forty days we'd hoped, and that if we did it wouldn't do us any good. We'd used up slightly over six days' worth of fuel for the 'dozer cutting slots for the tractor. There would be a balance between time and fuel that would give us the most possible days to use the 'dozer, when and if we got there.

"What's the active tank reading?" I asked.

"Point four."

Add that to the three inactive tanks, plus the two in the 'dozer, plus the auxiliaries, plus the one remaining salvaged "extra" strapped to the 'dozer's hood. Split it all up in terms of average consumption per mile at a given number of miles per hour. Balance it against miles to the landing site, days left to L-day, and 'dozer average consumption per day....

Ten minutes later I called her and asked: "Can you take an extra hour of driving a day?"

"If you can, so can I. You've got the rough seat."

I knew it was bravado; I did have the rougher ride, but she was a woman, and not a very big one, at that. On the other hand, I didn't dare assume anything but that she meant it. She was just itching for a chance to blow up in my face.

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