at led down and down into the dark.

Then the Irishman looked once at the suit he had expected to wear,
stared back where the figure of Chet had vanished, then dropped his head
upon his hands while his homely face was twisted convulsively.

* * * * *

It had come so soon! The great adventure was upon them before he had
realized. The reconnaissance--the flashes--and then Chet had gone! And
now he was alone in a silent ship that rested quietly in this soundless
world. The silence was heavy upon him; it seemed pressing in with actual
weight to bear him down. It was shattered at the last by the faintest of
whispered echoes from without.

Spud was on his feet in an instant, his eyes straining at one lookout
after another, each giving him a view of only the desolation he knew and
hated.

What could it have been? he demanded. He found and rejected a dozen
answers before he saw, far down in the black crater-mouth, a flash of
red; then heard again that ghost of a sound and knew it for what it was.

Thick walls, these of the space ship, and insulated well; and the thin
atmosphere of this wild world could cut a blast of sound to a mere
fraction of its volume! But the walls were admitting a fragmental echo
of what must have been a reverberating voice. They were quivering to the
roar of exploding detonite!

It was Chet! He was fighting, he was in trouble! Spud's trembling hands
steadied upon the metal control; he lifted the ship as smoothly as even
Chet might have done, and he drove it out and down into a throat too
narrow for safety, but where the tiny, red flash of a weapon had called
with an S O S as plain as any lettered call--a message to which brave
men have everywhere responded.

* * * * *

He saw Chet but once. The master pilot had shown him the flare release
lever; he moved it now, and the place of darkness was suddenly blinding
with light. There were rocks close at hand; the crater had narrowed to a
funnel throat that was cut and terraced as if by human hands. Below, it
ended in a smooth stone floor where the lava had sealed it shut.

From a terrace came the gleaming reflection of Chet's suit. Miraculously
the gleam was doubled, as if another in similar garb stood at his side.
And beyond, from blocks of stone, came leaping things--living creatures!

The light died. Spud realized he had not opened the release lever full.
He fumbled for it--found it, j