weigh
one-quarter ton!"

"Wasn't full. Weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds earth-weight,
which is eighty-five here. Then, besides, my own personal two hundred
and ten pounds is only seventy on Mars, so, tank and all, I grossed a
hundred and fifty-five, or fifty-five pounds less than my everyday
earth-weight. I figured on that when I undertook the forty-mile daily
stroll. Oh--of course I took a thermo-skin sleeping bag for these wintry
Martian nights.

"Off I went, bouncing along pretty quickly. Eight hours of daylight
meant twenty miles or more. It got tiresome, of course--plugging along
over a soft sand desert with nothing to see, not even Leroy's crawling
biopods. But an hour or so brought me to the canal--just a dry ditch
about four hundred feet wide, and straight as a railroad on its own
company map.

"There'd been water in it sometime, though. The ditch was covered with
what looked like a nice green lawn. Only, as I approached, the lawn
moved out of my way!"

"Eh?" said Leroy.

"Yeah, it was a relative of your biopods. I caught one--a little
grass-like blade about as long as my finger, with two thin, stemmy
legs."

"He is where?" Leroy was eager.

"He is let go! I had to move, so I plowed along with the walking grass
opening in front and closing behind. And then I was out on the orange
desert of Thyle again.

"I plugged steadily along, cussing the sand that made going so tiresome,
and, incidentally, cussing that cranky motor of yours, Karl. It was just
before twilight that I reached the edge of Thyle, and looked down over
the gray Mare Chronium. And I knew there was seventy-five miles of
_that_ to be walked over, and then a couple of hundred miles of that
Xanthus desert, and about as much more Mare Cimmerium. Was I pleased? I
started cussing you fellows for not picking me up!"

"We were trying, you sap!" said Harrison.

"That didn't help. Well, I figured I might as well use what was left of
daylight in getting down the cliff that bounded Thyle. I found an easy
place, and down I went. Mare Chronium was just the same sort of place as
this--crazy leafless plants and a bunch of crawlers; I gave it a glance
and hauled out my sleeping bag. Up to that time, you know, I hadn't seen
anything worth worrying about on this half-dead world--nothing
dangerous, that is."

"Did you?" queried Harrison.

"_Did I!_ You'll hear about it when I come to it. Well, I was just about
to turn in when suddenly I hear