webbing girdle until I
could clamp my head in position and begin the testing. It was slow
work. The first sad thing was to learn that the solenoid M1537 was as
good as new. When I put enough voltage across its terminals, the
actuator clicked down through the core.

I swore a blue streak.

"What is it Mike?" Sid's voice came in my ear.

"Trouble," I said. "What did we expect?"

"Roger," he said in that toneless unexcited astronauts' voice. "Return
to ship, Mike."

"Not now," I said. "I've just got the oyster opened."

His voice cut like my drill-bit. "I ordered you to return to ship.
Your air supply is about shot."

"I haven't been out that long," I protested, not feeling too sure
about the lapse of time.

"Your drill chewed it up pretty fast. Quit talking and start moving."

I was thankful for the experience of moving in close to the bird. The
same tricks worked much more smoothly as I used my deflection plate in
front of my belly blast to turn me to face the floodlight, and then
followed up with a light shove or two in the spine to start me
drifting toward _Nelly Bly_. There didn't seem any rush, and I drifted
slowly over, using only a couple triggered bursts of deceleration to
slow me down as I approached the open hatch.

Inside we went through the drill. My ears popped a little as Sid
unchucked my spent tanks, and popped again as the new ones came on
with a hiss.

"Take it easy on that steering fuel, Mike," he said again. "You're
getting awfully low."

"Sure," I said and let myself drift out the hatch. I had enough sense
to twist so that my back jet wouldn't hit the ship. Then I took a
zig-zag course through the darkness to my bird, got oriented at the
open gate and went back to work. Before I could get started, my
earphones spoke.

"Mike, Cleary here."

"Roger, Paul. What is it?"

"Have you gotten to that solenoid yet?"

"Yes."

"What can you tell me?"

"That you're a fathead. Now shut up. I'm busy."

"Roger, Mike," Paul Cleary acknowledged quite meekly.

So I started again, reaching with my leads from point to point. After
a certain number of tests, I had the area isolated, but not the part.
From here on it would have to be disassembly. Every tiny screw had to
be heated, then teased out with a jeweler's screwdriver. Some took my
patented ratchet extension. The big miracle was that I didn't break
anything.

[Illustration]

When I got to it, it was ridiculous. A small length of wire co