ires strung
in every direction and faint little lights you could see by.

Bobby went further and further every trip he took, never telling anybody
because you weren't supposed to talk about things at Buffalo Flats--not
even to the other kids.

Then he found the big drome where they were building the rocket. It was
so sleek and beautiful and shiny that he just stared at it--up through
the grating in the floor that was for air circulation or something.

He didn't know it was the moon rocket at first. Not until he'd gone back
several times to peek up at it and then one day two scientists came
walking along right in front of his nose.

One of them was Dad.

Bobby almost called out but he caught himself and just listened to them
talking. This was the first time his conscience bothered him about going
underneath the drome. He thought about it a lot--whether it was the
right thing to do. And while he was never able to still his conscience
completely, he quieted down by saying he really wasn't doing any harm
because he'd never told anybody what he saw.

He learned the rocket was going to the moon by listening to Dad and the
other scientists talk when they thought they were alone. And it was
funny. Because even there, they spoke in low voices and didn't give too
much away.

He had known now for three days that at four o'clock the roof would open
and the drome would be turned into a blast-pit and the rocket would
shoot out through space to the moon.

That was all he _did_ know for sure. None of the men had said who was
going on the first trip to the moon. Nothing had been said on that
subject at all, but Bobby knew Dad would go. He would have to. After
all, Dad was the second biggest scientist at Buffalo Flats. Second only
to Schleimmer himself and Professor Schleimmer was very old and
certainly wouldn't make the trip. That left Dad. Dad would just have to
go in order to run the rocket. There probably wasn't anybody else smart
enough in the whole place.

The idea of going himself had been born the previous day--when he found
a larger grating in the floor near the rocket and realized if he was
very careful he could climb out of the sewer and duck into the rocket
when nobody was looking. Once inside he was pretty sure he'd find a
place to hide until blast-off.

All the men would probably be strapped in bunks but if he found a place
he could wedge himself in he didn't think he'd get hurt. Then, halfway
to the moon he wo