ge
projector from the ship would kill Miko and his men as they came
forward to join it! And then we could falsely direct the brigands,
lead them away from Grantline and the treasure.

"Gregg, we must try it."

Heaven help me, I yielded to her persuasion!

We turned at right angles and ran toward where the distant frowning
walls of Archimedes loomed against the starlit sky.

CHAPTER XXVIII

_The Ascent of Archimedes_

The broken shaggy ramparts of the giant crater rose above us. We
toiled upward, out of the foothills, clinging now to the crags and
pitted terraces of the main ascent. An hour had passed since we turned
from the borders of the Mare Imbrium. Or was it two hours? I could not
tell. I only know that we ran with desperate frantic haste.

Anita would not admit that she was tired. She was more skilful than I
in this leaping over the broken rock masses. Yet I felt that her
slight strength must give out. It seemed miles up the undulating
slopes of the foothills with the black and white ramparts of the
massive crater close before us.

And then the main ascent. There were places where, like smooth black
frozen ice, the walls rose sheer. We avoided them, toiling aside,
plunging into gullies, crossing pits where sometimes we perforce went
downwards, and then up again; or sometimes we stood, hot and
breathless, upon ledges, recovering our strength, selecting the best
route upward.

This tumbled mass of rock! Honeycombed everywhere with caves and
passages leading into darkness impenetrable. There were pits into
which we might so easily have fallen; ravines to span, sometimes with
a leap, sometimes by a long and arduous detour.

Endless climb! We came to a ledge, with the plains of the Mare Imbrium
stretching out beneath us. We might have been upon this main ascent
for an hour; the plains were far down, the broken surface down there
smoothed now by the perspective of our height. And yet still above us
the brooding circular wall went up into the sky. Ten thousand feet
still above us--I think it was at least that, or more.

"You're tired, Anita. We'd better stay here."

"No! If we could only get to the top--the ship may land on the other
side--they would see us if we were at the top."

* * * * *

There was as yet no sign of the brigand ship. With every stop for rest
we searched the starry vault. The Earth hung over us, flattened beyond
the full. The stars blazed to mingle w