Page 14 (1/2)

Lucky juently doard under the pull of Io&039;s weak gravity He was angry at the slowness of his fall, at Bigman for the childish enthusiasms that seized hi stopped Bight

Lucky hit the streah in the air, then fell back with surprising quickness Io&039;s thin atravity

There was no sense of buoyancy to the ammonia river Lucky had not expected any to speak of Liquid a power Nor was the force of the current great under Io&039;s weak pull Had Biged his air hose, it would have been only a h any of the drifts that ht have packed it round

As it was

Lucky splashed downstrealing feebly against the poisonous arown large enough, to allow liquid aht be too late, already, and his chest constricted and tightened at the thought

A for itself in the powdered a a tunnel into which ammonia slowly collapsed

"Panner," Lucky said tentatively

"Here I aineer&039;s arm fell upon Lucky&039;s shoulder fro when you yelled We were both on his wave length"

Together they forged through the a

Lucky cried eagerly, "He&039;s got Big&039;s suit-encased haunches, and though that ha to h use of shoulderhold relaxed and he fell

Lucky scooped hiation or talk There was only one thing to do He turned up Big hi for Io&039;s gravity he had never run so recklessly in his life With such haste did he kick the ground ahen co, horizontal stride that the effect was al in the rear, and Mutt stayed excitedly at Lucky&039;s heels

Lucky used the co and one of the air tights was ht, scarcely breaking his stride The flap closed behind him and the interior flooded with additional air under pressure to

With flying fingers he unbuckled Bigman&039;s helmet, then more slowly drew off the rest of the suit

He felt for the heartbeat and, to his relief, found it The air tight was equipped, of course, with a first-aid kit He eneral stien to do the rest

And eventually Bigman&039;s eyes fluttered and focused with difficulty on Lucky His lips h no sound was involved

Lucky laughed with relief and finally took the time to remove his own space suit

On board the Jovian Moon Harry Norrich stopped at the open door of the co his recuperation His unseeing, china-blue eyes ith pleasure

"How&039;s the invalid?"

Bigled up in his bunk and shouted, "Fine! Sands of Mars, I feel great! If it weren&039;t that Lucky wants to keep runted his disbelief

Bignored that He said, "Hey, let Mutt come in Good old Mutt! Here, boy, here!"

Mutt, the hold on his harness released, trotted over to Big everything but talk a greeting

Big&039;s neck in a bear hug "Boy, there&039;s a friend You heard what he did, Norrich, didn&039;t you?"

"Everyone did," and it was plain to see that Norrich took a great personal pride in his dog&039;s accoful of ahten out I rolled downhill, just going through the a Then there was this thing co at me and I was sure it was Lucky when I heard the sound of soh of the snow off us to let soht co I re, too," Lucky said "The extra time that would have been required fordeal out of it Nothing would have happened if I hadn&039;t just caught the hose on a rock and torn it At that if I had had enough brains to turn up en pressure, I could have kept the aful that seemed to put me out of kilter I couldn&039;t think"

Panner passed by, just then, and looked "How are you, Bigman?"

"Sands of Mars! Looks like everyone thinks I&039; with ed to find his tongue long enough to grunt at etting over his ht won&039;t be spoiled by a casualty He wants his record pure white, that&039;s all"

Panner laughed "All set for the take-off?"

Lucky said, "Are we leaving Io?"

"Any hour Thewith us and securing e leave behind If you two can make the pilot rooet a better look at Jupiter than ever"

He tickled Mutt behind one ear and left

They radioed Jupiter Nine that they were leaving Io, as days earlier they had radioed that they had surfaced on the satellite

Bigman said, "Why don&039;t we call Earth? Chief Councilht to knoe&039;ve made it"

"Officially," said Lucky, "we haven&039;t made it all the way until we&039;ve returned to Jupiter Nine"

He did not add aloud that he was not at all anxious to return to Jupiter Nine, still less anxious to talk to Conway He had, after all, acco on this trip,

His brown eyes surveyed the control rooineers and creere at their stations for the takeoff The commander, his two officers and Panner, however, were in the control rooain about the officers as tiain he had wondered about each of the tenhad not had a chance to eliminate

He had spoken to each of them on occasion, as had Panner even more frequently He had searched thek quarters He and Panner together had gone over thek records Nothing had resulted

He would be going back to Jupiter Nine with the robot unlocated, and thereafter location would be harder than ever and he ht have to report back to Council headquarters with news of failure

Once ht of X rays entered his mind, or soht at once of the possibility of triggering off an explosion, probably a nuclear explosion