"Not me, hot-shot," yelled Astro. "After that walk, all I'd have to do
is open my mouth and start drinking."

Finally tiring of his sport, the big Venusian pulled himself up onto the
bank of the canal and quickly dressed. Pulling on his space boots, he
turned to Tom and Roger, who were breaking out the last two containers
of food.

"You know, Astro," said Roger quietly, "I'll never be able to repay you
for carrying me."

Tom was quiet for a moment, and then added, "Same here, Astro."

Astro grinned from ear to ear. "Answer me this one question, both of
you. Would you have done it for me?"

The two boys nodded.

"Then you paid me. As long as I know I'm backed up by two guys like you,
then I'm paid. Carrying you, Roger, was just something I could do for
you at that particular time. One of these days, when we get out of this
oven, there'll come a time when you or Tom will do something for me--and
that's the way it should be."

"Thanks, Astro," said Roger. He reached over and put his hand on top of
Astro's, and then Tom placed his hand on top of theirs. The three boys
were quiet for a moment. There was an understanding in each of them that
they had accomplished more than just survival in a desert. They had
learned to respect each other. They were a unit at last.

"What do we do next?" asked Roger.

"Start walking that way," said Tom, pointing to his left along the bank
of the canal that stretched off in a straight line to the very horizon.
"If we're lucky, we might be able to find something to use as a raft and
then we can ride."

"Think there are any fish in this canal?" asked Astro, gazing out over
the cool blue water.

"Doubt it. At least I've never heard of there being any," replied Tom.

"Well," said Roger, standing up, "you can go a lot farther without food
than you can without water. And we still have that big container of ham
left."

"Yeah, as soon as it gets hot, we just swim instead of walk," said
Astro. "And, believe me, there's going to be a lot of swimming done!"

"Think we might strike anything down that way," asked Roger. He looked
down the canal in the direction Tom had indicated.

"That's the direction of the nearest atmosphere booster station. At
least that was the way it looked on the chart. All of them were built
near the canals."

"How far away do you think it is?" asked Astro.

"Must be at least three hundred miles."

"Let's start moving," said Roger, "and hope we can find so