ne ammonia to
begin their search for Tom and Astro.

CHAPTER 15

"Listen!"

Captain Strong grabbed the young master sergeant by the arm and stood
stock-still in the swirling methane ammonia gas, his eyes searching the
misty sky.

"What is it, sir?" asked Morgan.

"A spaceship decelerating," said Strong, "coming in for a touchdown!"

"I think I hear it now, sir!" said Morgan.

"Can you figure out where it is? I can't see a blasted thing."

"Sounds to me as though it's to the left, sir."

"O.K., let's go and investigate," said Strong. "There isn't any good
reason for a ship coming down in this deadly soup--or in this area."

Walking slowly and cautiously, the two spacemen angled to the left,
peering through the clouds of gas that seemed to get thicker as they
moved along. The roaring blast of the ship became louder.

Strong put his hand out to stop Morgan. "Let's hold up a minute,
Sergeant," he said. "I don't want to get too close until I know what
we're facing."

They stood absolutely still, the gas swirling around them in undulating
clouds that grew thicker one minute and then thinned out again. As the
gas thinned for a few seconds, Strong gasped and pointed.

"Look!" he cried. "By the craters of Luna, it's Brett's ship!"

"Brett?" asked Morgan.

"Charles Brett. He owns that ship. It's the one that won the space race
from Earth. Now, what would he be doing landing out here?"

"I think he came down beside that warehouse up ahead, sir," said Morgan,
as the gas cloud closed in again, cutting off their view of the actual
landing. "It used to be a storehouse for mining gear a couple of years
ago, but it's been empty for some time."

"I think we'd better check this, Sergeant," said Strong firmly. "Come
on."

Strong started forward, then stopped, as a particularly heavy cloud of
the deadly gas swirled around them. The two spacemen clung together
blinded by the dense methane ammonia that would kill them in thirty
seconds should their oxygen masks fail. In a moment the foggy death
thinned out again and they continued toward the warehouse and the sleek
black ship behind it.

* * * * *

Tom Corbett and Astro heard the roaring blast of the ship's exhaust.
They saw Brett and Miles haul the instruments out of the cavern. They
saw; they could hear; but they could not move. For nearly three hours
they had remained alone in the cavern, frozen in the exact position they
we