ans in the firing chamber.
We had to flood the chamber with acid to subdue the creature, which
carbonized nicely. So now we have plenty of air and water again, but
besides having another Martian still on the loose, we now don't have
enough acid left in the fuel tanks to make a landing.

Pat says at least our vector will carry us to Earth and we can die on
our home planet, which is better than perishing in space.

The hell it is.

* * * * *

_March 3, 1962_

Earth in sight. The other Martian is still with us. He's where we can't
get at him without blow-torches, but he can't get at the carbon in the
AFAR system, either, which is a help. However, his tail is prehensile,
and now and then it snakes out through an air duct and yanks food right
off the table from under our noses.

Kroger says watch out. _We_ are made of carbohydrates, too. I'd rather
not have known.

* * * * *

_March 4, 1962_

Earth fills the screen in the control room. Pat says if we're lucky, he
might be able to use the bit of fuel we have left to set us in a
descending spiral into one of the oceans. The rocket is tighter than a
submarine, he insists, and it will float till we're rescued, if the
plates don't crack under the impact.

We all agreed to try it. Not that we thought it had a good chance of
working, but none of us had a better idea.

* * * * *

I guess you know the rest of the story, about how that destroyer spotted
us and got us and my diary aboard, and towed the rocket to San
Francisco. News of the "captured Martian" leaked out, and we all became
nine-day wonders until the dismantling of the rocket.

Kroger says he must have dissolved in the water, and wonders what _that_
would do. There are about a thousand of those crystal-scales on a
Martian.

So last week we found out, when those red-scaled things began clambering
out of the sea on every coastal region on Earth. Kroger tried to explain
to me about salinity osmosis and hydrostatic pressure and crystalline
life, but in no time at all he lost me.

The point is, bullets won't stop these things, and wherever a crystal
falls, a new Martian springs up in a few weeks. It looks like the five
of us have abetted an invasion from Mars.

Needless to say, we're no longer heroes.

I ha