and Mike. A later achievement always
makes an earlier one look small. Now the four of them would be
forgotten. History would remember the commander of the Moonship.

Forgotten? Yes, perhaps. But the names of the four of them, Joe and
Haney and the Chief and Mike, would still be remembered in a language
Joe couldn't speak, in a small village he couldn't name, on those
occasions when the Mohawk tribe met in formal council.

The Chief grumbled. Mike stared out the port with bitter envy.

"It was a dirty trick," growled the Chief. "We shoulda been part of the
first gang ever to land on the Moon!"

Joe grimaced. His crew needed to be cured of feeling the same way he
did.

"I wouldn't say this outside of our gang," said Joe carefully, "but if
it hadn't been for us four that ship wouldn't be on the way at all.
Haney figured the trick that got us back to Earth the first time, or
else we'd have been killed. If we had been killed, Mike wouldn't have
figured out the metal-concrete business. But for him, that Moonship
wouldn't even be a gleam in anybody's eye. And if the Chief hadn't blown
up that manned rocket we fought in the space wagons, there wouldn't be
any Platform up here to reload and refuel the Moonship. So they left us
behind! But just among the four of us I think we can figure that if it
hadn't been for us they couldn't have made it!"

Haney grinned slowly at Joe. The Chief regarded him with irony. Mike
said, "Yeah. Haney, and me, and the Chief. We did it all."

"Uh-huh," said the Chief sardonically. "Us three. Just us three. Joe
didn't do anything. Just a bum, he is. We oughta tell Sally he's no good
and she oughta pick herself out a guy that'll amount to something some
day." He hit Joe between the shoulders. "Sure! Just a bum, Joe! That's
all! But we got a weakness for you. We'll let you hang around with us
just the same! Come on, guys! Let's get something to eat!"

The four of them marched down a steel-floored corridor, their
magnetic-soled shoes clanking on the plates. Their progress was
uncertain and ungainly and altogether undignified. Suddenly the Chief
began to bawl a completely irrelevant song to the effect that the
inhabitants of the kingdom of Siam were never known to wash their
dishes. Haney chimed in, and Mike. They were all very close together,
and they were not at all impressive. But it hit Joe very hard, this
sudden knowledge that the others didn't really care. It was the first
time it had occur