right, spaceman," said Astro, "a raft. There's enough wood up
there to float the _Polaris_. Come on!"

Astro hurried outside, with Tom and Roger following at his heels. They
quickly climbed to the roof of the old building and soon were ripping
the beams from the crumbling mud. Fortunately the beams had been joined
by notching the ends of the crosspieces. Astro explained that this was
necessary because of the premium on nails when the house was built.
Everything at that time had to be hauled from Earth, and no one wanted
to pay the price heavy nails and bolts demanded.

One by one, they removed the heavy beams, until they had eight of them
lined up alongside the edge of the canal.

"How do we keep them together?" asked Roger.

"With this!" said Tom. He began ripping his space cloth into long
strips. Astro and Roger tugged at the first beam. At last they had it in
the water.

"It floats," cried Astro. Tom and Roger couldn't help but shout for joy.
They quickly hauled the remaining beams into the water and lashed them
together. Without hesitation, they shoved the raft into the canal,
climbing aboard and standing like conquering heroes, as the raft moved
out into the main flow of the canal and began to drift forward.

"I dub thee--_Polaris the Second_," said Tom in formal tones and gave
the nearest beam a kick.

Astro and Roger gave a lusty cheer.

Steadily, silently, the raft bore them through the never-changing scene
of the canal's muddy banks and the endlessness of the desert beyond.

Protecting themselves from the sun during the day by repeated dunkings
in the water, they traveled day and night in a straight course down the
center of the canal. At night, the tiny moon, Deimos, climbed across the
desert and reflected light upon the satin-smooth water.

The third day on the raft they began to feel the pangs of hunger. And
where during their march through the desert, their thoughts were of
water, now visions of endless tables of food occupied their thoughts. At
first, they talked of their hunger, dreaming up wild combinations of
dishes and giving even wilder estimates of how much each could consume.
Finally, discovering that talking about it only intensified their
desire, they kept a stolid silence. When the heat became unbearable,
they simply took to the water. Once Tom's grip on the raft slipped and
Roger plunged in after him without a moment's hesitation, only to have
Astro go in to save both of them.

On a