ack on schedule, Rough Rock. Peak altitude 1037 miles.
Everything fine, no danger. This was all a cinch.... HEY! Wait....
Something not in the books has popped up ... stand by!"

Dan had felt the rocket swing a bit, strangely, as if gripped by a
strong force. Instead of falling directly down toward Earth with a
slight pitch, it slanted sideways and spun on its long axis. And then
Dan saw what it was....

Beneath, intercepting his trajectory, coming around fast over the
curvature of Earth, was a tiny black worldlet, 998 miles above Earth. It
might be an enormous meteor, but Dan felt he was right the first time.
For it wasn't falling like a meteor but swinging parallel to Earth's
surface on even keel.

He stared at the unexpected discovery, as amazed as if it were a
fire-breathing dragon out of legend. For it was, actually, he realized
in swift, stunned comprehension, more amazing than any legend.

Dan kept his voice calm. "Hello, Rough Rock.... Listen ... nobody
expected _this_ ... hold your hat, sir, and sit down. I've discovered a
_second moon_ of Earth!... Uhhuh, you heard me right! a second moon! Tie
that, will you?... Sure, it's tiny, less than a mile in diameter I'd
say. Dead black in color. Guess that's why telescopes never spotted it.
Tiny and black, blends into the black backdrop of space. It has terrific
speed. And that little maverick's gravitational field caught my
rocket.... Of course it can't yank me away from Earth gravity, but the
trouble is--yipe! my rocket and that moonlet may be in for a mutual
_collision_ course...."

Dan's trained eye suddenly saw that grim possibility. Barreling around
Earth in a narrow orbit with a speed of something near or over 12,000
miles an hour the tiny new moon had, since his ascent, charged directly
into his downward free fall. It was a chance in a thousand for a direct
hit, except for one added factor--the moonlet exerted enough gravity
pull out of its many-million ton bulk to warp the rocket into its path.
And the thousand-to-one odds were thus wiped out, becoming even money.

"Nip and tuck," reported Dan, answering the excited pleadings and
questions from Rough Rock. "It won't be a head-on crash. I may even miss
entirely.... Oh, Lord! Not with that spire of rock sticking up from
it.... I'm going to hit that ..."

Dan had heard an atomic bomb blast once and it sounded like a string of
them set off at once as the rocket smashed into the rocky prominence.
The rock s