Arcot raised a restraining hand. "Whoa--wait a minute there, Morey--you
won't get anything through to them now. The Earth is on the other side
of Venus--it's on the night side, remember--and we're on the day side.
In about twelve hours we'll be able to send a message. In the meantime,
take the controls while I make a test of the air here, will you?"

Relieved of the controls, Arcot rose and walked down the corridor to the
power room where the chemical laboratory had been set up. Wade had
already collected a dozen samples of air, and was working on them.

"How is it--what have you tested for so far?" asked Arcot.

"Oxygen and CO_{2}. The oxygen is about twenty-two per cent, or
considering the slightly lower air pressure here, we will have just
about the right amount of oxygen. The CO_{2} is about one-tenth of one
per cent. The atmosphere is O.K. for terrestrial life apparently; that
mouse there is living quite happily. Whatever the other seventy-five per
cent or so of diluting gas is, I don't know, but it isn't nitrogen."

Briefly Arcot and Wade discussed the unusual atmosphere, finally
deciding that the inert gas was argon.

"No great amount of nitrogen," Arcot concluded. "That means that life
will have a sweet time extracting it from the air--but wherever there is
life, it finds a way to do the impossible. Test it more accurately, will
you--you try for nitrogen and I'll try the component inert gasses."

They ran the analyses rapidly, and in a very short time--less than an
hour--their results stood at 23 per cent oxygen, .1 per cent carbon
dioxide, 68 per cent argon, 6 per cent nitrogen, 2 per cent helium, 5
per cent neon, .05 per cent hydrogen, and the rest krypton and xenon
apparently. The analyses of these inert gasses had to be done rather
roughly in this short time, but it was sufficient to balance fairly
accurately.

The two chemists reported back to the control cabin.

"Well, we'll be able to breathe the atmosphere of Venus with ease. I
believe we can go on now. I have been surprised to see no water in
sight, but I think I see my mistake now. You know the Mississippi has
its mouth further from the center of the Earth than its source; it flows
up hill! The answer is, of course, that the centrifugal force of the
Earth's spin impels it to flow that way. Similarly, I am sure now that
we will find that Venus has a vast belt of water about the middle, and
to the north and south there will be two great caps o