hts, Wolden began to explain. "We are less than
fifty miles from a spot where the earth could be seen. Not over a degree
below the curvature. In fact, if the moon were full, there would be a bit
of light here, for a strong light playing upon any globe always lights up
over half of it. We are not far from the Heroynian Mountains and the Bay of
Dew. Just a few miles within that other side of the moon which none of your
people have ever seen before."

Odin remembered Jules Verne's account of a volcano spouting its last breath
of life in that zone, but out there was nothing but the dark and the stars
that smoldered like sapphires, rubies, and diamonds upon a black velvet
sky. There were no shadows. The darkness was solid, as though it had frozen
there since old and no spark had ever invaded it.

"Be patient, my friend," Wolden had sensed his thoughts again. "Before
long, you will see more of the moon than men have ever known. We sent a
smaller ship into space. Remember! Our scientists are here. In a place
beyond your dreams. Look. They are coming now."

Wolden was adjusting the screen again. Far off, something like a long
jointed bug with a single glaring light in its head was crawling toward
them.

It drew nearer. Jack Odin saw that it was no more than a huge caterpillar
tractor with several cars attached, armored and sheathed with sort of a
bellows-type connection at each joint. As it neared the Nebula, it played
its light around so that Odin got his first glimpse of the moon. Barren,
worn, cindered. An ash-heap turned to stone. Puddles and splashes shaped
like great crowns, as though liquid rock had congealed at the very height
of its torment. Needles of rock, toadstools of rock, bubbles of rock, and
glassy sheets of rock--this was the surface of the moon.

Then the crawling tractor with its cars lumbering along behind it on their
endless tracks was below them and playing its single light upward.

* * * * *

An air-lock in the Nebula opened and a huge hose came slowly down. Odin
watched it on the screen. It seemed to have been pleated and shoved
together like an accordion. Now it opened out in little jerking movements,
extending itself about two feet at each writhing twitch. As it grew longer
it expanded and was nearly three feet across when it reached the top of the
first car. A round door opened. Unseen hands reached the end of the big
hose and fastened it securely.

Odin had ofte