nd the silence, after the endless roaring of
endless days, was overpowering.

* * * * *

But Winslow pointed exultantly from one window, where an icy expanse
could be seen. "That will be water," he said; "water, when the sun has
risen."

He turned on the generator for warmth. The cold was striking through
the thick insulated walls. They sat silent, peering out upon that
boundless desolation, upon a world's breathless nakedness, exposed for
the first time in all eternity to human eyes.

Jerry's mind was searching for some means of expression, but the words
would not come. There were neither words nor coherent thoughts to give
vent to the emotions that surged within him.

Their watches showed the passage of nearly two earth days before they
dared venture forth. They watched the white mantle of frost vanish
into gas. From the darkness that they called "west," winds rushed
shriekingly into the sunrise.

"Convection currents," Winslow explained; "off under the sun. In the
direct rays the heat grows intense; the air rises. This is rushing in
to fill the void. It will serve our ends, too. It will churn the air
into a mixture we can breathe, dispel the thick layer of CO_2 that
must have formed close to the ground."

More hours, and the icy sheet was melting. A film of water rippled in
the gusts of wind. Winslow opened the release valve that would permit
the escape of air from their chamber, equalizing the pressures within
and without. The air hissed through the valve, and he closed it so the
escape was gradual.

"We must exercise," he told Jerry. "We will decompress slowly, like
divers coming up from deep-sea work. But watch yourself," he warned.
"Remember you are six times as strong as you were on the earth. Don't
jump through the roof."

* * * * *

THE valve had ceased to hiss when Winslow opened it wide. The air in
their cabin was thin; their lungs labored heavily at first. Jerry felt
as he had felt more than once at some great elevation on earth. But
they lived, and they could breathe, and they were about to do what
never man had done--to set foot on this place men called the unknown
side of the moon.

Earth habits were strong: Jerry brought his pistol and a hunting knife
out of his pack and hung them at his belt, as the inventor opened the
door and sniffed cautiously of the air.

Jerry Foster's blood was racing; the air was cold on his face as he