is is the first
time I ever flew myself. Guess I was never properly designed."

Feeble, this attempt at humor; but there was none to note the strained
edge in his tone, only a girl, whose metal-clad hand closed in a tight
hold upon his.

"You can joke--_now_," she said with a catch in her voice that showed
how desperately hard she was trying to meet Chet's fortitude and force
her own words to steadiness. "That takes--real nerve. I like that!"

Then she added: "But it's hopeless; you know that. They've got us. And
now that some of them have been killed they will--they will--"

And the trace of Chet's strained smile that lingered on his lips, could
she have seen it, would have appeared grim.

"Whatever it was you didn't say, I agree with. I imagine the finish will
not be pleasant." Once more he was facing the inevitable; and, as
before, he faced it squarely and knowingly, then put it completely from
his mind. There was so much he must know before that adventure's end was
reached.

"Tell me," he demanded, "who are 'they'? Where are they? How many are
there of them? And where have they got us? What kind of a place is this,
where all natural laws are suspended, where gravitation is at zero?

"And, for heaven's sake, tell me: who are you? Where are you from? How
did you get here on the Moon?"

* * * * *

That uncontrollable catch in the girl's voice had taken on a trace of
brave laughter that overlay the trembling sob in her throat.

"That is a lot of information," she said, "and I am afraid it will not
make much difference if you know. Oh, I wish I had some atom of
encouragement for you! I do not know who you are either--and you have
been so brave! You have come here, I brought you with my signals for
help--brought you to your death.

"For it _is_ death! This is the end of our adventuring--mine and yours
as well--here at the center, the exact center of the Moon."

"Ah-h!" answered Chet Bullard softly, as understanding came to him. "I
should have guessed it. The atmospheric pressure and density--and we
fell past the center, then back again; we've been vibrating back and
forth until we came to rest at last. And now we die! Well, it might have
been worse."

He was staring out through the little window of his helmet, staring into
the faintly luminous atmosphere, facing the end of his brave fling with
fortune. It was an instant before he realized that there was something
moving in th