ed's a specialist. He'll take over."

The sad-faced young man held up his hand for attention. He thought.
Visibly. Then he said worriedly:

"I would take you over to my laboratory, but I promised my wife I would
call her in half an hour from now. Johnny Simms' wife just reminded me.
My wife is back on Earth. So you will have to go to the laboratory
without me and have Mr. Jones show you the proof of my work. A very
intelligent man, Jones--in a subordinate way, of course. Yes. I will get
you a jeep and you can go there at once, and when you come back you can
tell me what you plan. But you understand that it is not for myself that
I want credit! It is my discovery! It is terribly important! It is
vital! It must not be overlooked!"

Holden escorted him away, while Cochrane carefully controlled his
features. After a few moments Holden came back, his face sagging.

"This your drink, Jed?" he asked dispiritedly. "I need it!" He picked up
the glass and emptied it. "The history of that case would be
interesting, if one could really get to the bottom of it! Come along!"
His tone was dreariness itself. "I've got a jeep waiting for us."

Babs stood up, her eyes shining.

"May I come, Mr. Cochrane?"

Cochrane waved her along. Holden tried to stalk gloomily, but nobody can
stalk in one-sixth gravity. He reeled, and then depressedly accommodated
himself to conditions on the moon.

There was an airlock with a smaller edition of the moon-jeep that had
brought them from the ship to the city. It was a brightly-polished metal
body, raised some ten feet off the ground on outrageously large wheels.
It was very similar to the straddle-trucks used in lumberyards on Earth.
It would straddle boulders in its path. It could go anywhere in spite of
dust and detritus, and its metal body was air-tight and held air for
breathing, even out on the moon's surface.

They climbed in. There was the sound of pumping, which grew fainter. The
outer lock-door opened. The moon-jeep rolled outside.

Babs stared with passionate rapture out of a shielded port. There were
impossibly jagged stones, preposterously steep cliffs. There had been no
weather to remove the sharp edge of anything in a hundred million years.
The awkward-seeming vehicle trundled over the lava sea toward the
rampart of mighty mountains towering over Lunar City. It reached a steep
ascent. It climbed. And the way was remarkably rough and the vehicle
springless, but it was nevertheless