s he got up from his chair, Mom said, "And what's your plan
for today, young man? Davy Crockett or Buck Rogers?"

[Illustration]

Bobby had a quick thought--a sudden temptation. Why not give Mom a hint?
Why he could even _tell_ her and she still wouldn't know. Then later,
after he was gone, she would remember back and say, _That boy! When he
tells you something he really means it._

Bobby smiled and said, "I think I'll go to the moon today."

Mom smiled too and went back to her fashions. "Well, see to it your fuel
mixture is correct."

"I'll check it. And Mom--I might not be home for lunch."

"Where will you be?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Well, mind your manners and say thank you when you leave."

Mrs. Kendall, still smiling, watched Bobby dash out into the yard.
Living on a restricted government area had one compensation at least.
You didn't have to worry about your children. Four dozen families, all
with offspring, trapped behind ten-foot patrolled fence. Here, nobody
worried about their children. They came and went and at noon a mother
fed whatever number happened to be in the house at the time. Mrs.
Kendall usually drew six or seven. It would be a relief to dodge the
chore for one Saturday....

* * * * *

Out in the backyard, Bobby fussed around his space rocket a little:
tightening a screw here--hammering in a nail there. Just until he could
slip away without Mom noticing his direction.

It wasn't a bad rocket at that, he thought. Six feet long with two seats
and a keen instrument panel. But kid stuff of course. After he found the
way in through the sewer he hadn't paid any more attention to his own
ship.

He could see Mom through the window, back in her book, so he went
casually out through the back gate and turned left, kicking at pebbles
as he sauntered along and trying to look as though he had no place to
go. Had to be careful. Didn't want to bump into any of the other kids
today, either.

The way in through the sewer was at a place behind Laboratory B. There
was a kind of an alley there that nobody ever walked through and then
this round lid you could lift up and look under. And a ladder you could
climb down.

Bobby hadn't dared go down at first. But, after thinking about it
overnight, his curiosity won out and he went back and ducked down
into the lower level. He called it a sewer because of sewers being
underground, but this place was clean and had bunches of w