rtially
succeeded. We crashed horribly against the barren gray rock of the
Moon. Anita, Venza, Snap and I lived through it, but we could not find
the bodies of Miko and Moa in the wreckage. Evidently they were still
alive, somewhere.

We reached Johnny Grantline. The _Planetara_ was a complete wreck.
And, speeding to us from Mars, was Miko's brigand ship.

We were powerless--without means of leaving the Moon--and completely
at the mercy of Miko's fast approaching brigands!

CHAPTER XXIII

_The Prowling Watchman_

"Try it again," Snap urged. "Good God, Johnny, we've got to raise some
Earth station! Chance it! Use your power--run it up to the full.
Chance it!"

We were gathered in Grantline's instrument room. The duty-man, with
blanched grim face, sat at his senders. The Grantline crew shoved
close around us, tense and silent.

Above everything we must make some Earth station aware of our plight.
Conditions were against us. There were very few observers, in the
high-powered Earth stations who knew that an exploring party was on
the Moon. Perhaps none of them. The Government officials who had
sanctioned the expedition--and Halsey and his confreres in the
Detective Bureau--were not anticipating trouble now. The _Planetara_
was supposed to be well on her course to Ferrok-Shahn. It was when she
was due to return that Halsey would be alert.

And it seemed, too, that nature was against us. The bulging
half-Earth[1] hung poised near the zenith over our little crater. Its
rotation through the hours was clearly visible. We timed our signals
when the western hemisphere was facing us. But nature was against us.
No clouds, no faintest hint of mist could fog the airless Lunar
surface. But there were continuous clouds over the Americas.

[Footnote 1: Between the half and the full illumined disc, the
complete Earth now was some ten days old.]

"Try it again," Snap urged.

* * * * *

These bulging walls! Grantline used his power far beyond the limits of
safety. He cut down his lights; the telescope intensifiers were
permanently disconnected; the ventilators were momentarily stilled, so
that the air here in the little room crowded with men rapidly grew
fetid. All to save power pressure, that the vital Erentz system might
survive.

Even so it was strained to the danger point. The walls seemed to bulge
outward with the pressure of the room, the aluminite braces straining
and creaking. And