nk God, not dead! She moved. Her arms went around me, and I
lifted her. The Earth-light glowed on her pale face; but her eyes opened
and she faintly smiled.

"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and we're still alive."

I held her as though all life's turgid danger were powerless to touch
us.

But in the silence my floating senses were brought back to reality by a
faint sound forcing itself upon me. A little hiss. The faintest
murmuring breath like a hiss. Escaping air!

I cast off her clinging arms. "Anita, this is madness!"

* * * * *

For minutes we must have been lying there in the heaven of our embrace.
But air was escaping! The _Planetara's_ dome was broken--or cracked--and
our precious air was hissing out.

Full reality came to me at last. I was not seriously injured. I found
that I could move freely. I could stand. A twisted shoulder, a limp left
arm, but they were better in a moment.

And Anita did not seem to be hurt. Blood was upon her. But not her
blood.

Beside Anita, stretched face down on the turret grid, was the giant
figure of Miko. The blood lay in a small pool against his face. A
widening pool.

Moa was here. I thought her body twitched; then was still. This
soundless wreckage! In the dim glow of the wrecked turret with its two
motionless, broken human figures, it seemed as though Anita and I were
ghouls prowling. I saw that the turret had fallen over to the
_Planetara's_ deck. It lay dashed against the dome-side.

The deck was aslant. A litter of wreckage. A broken human figure
showed--one of the crew, who at the last must have come running up. The
forward observation tower was down on the chart-room roof: in its metal
tangle I thought I could see the legs of the tower look-out.

So this was the end of the brigands' adventure! The _Planetara's_ last
voyage! How small and futile are human struggles! Miko's daring
enterprise--so villainous, inhuman--brought all in a few moments to this
silent tragedy. The _Planetara_ had fallen thirty thousand miles. But
why? What had happened to Hahn? And where was Coniston, down in this
broken hull?

And Snap. I thought suddenly of Snap.

* * * * *

I clutched at my wandering wits. This inactivity was death. The escaping
air hissed in my ears. Our precious air, escaping away into the vacant
desolation of the Lunar emptiness. Through one of the twisted, slanting
dome-windows a rocky spire wa