ed them into the curious locks which conveyed them outside the hull
into firing position.

The ring-mountains were gigantic when they blasted again! They were only
20 miles up, then, and some of the peaks rose four miles from their
inner crater floors.

The ships were still descending fast. Joe spoke into his microphone.

"Calling Moonship! Calling----" He stopped and said matter-of-factly,
"I suggest we fire our last blast together. Shall I give the word?
Right!"

The surface of the Moon came toward them. Craters, cracks, frozen
fountains of stone, swelling undulations of ground interrupted without
rhyme or reason by the gigantic splashings of missiles from the sky a
hundred thousand million years ago. The colorings were unbelievable.
There were reds and browns and yellows. There were grays and dusty
deep-blues and streaks of completely impossible tints in combination.

But Joe couldn't watch that. He kept his eyes on a very special gadget
which was a radar range-finder. He hadn't used it about the Platform
because there were too many tin cans and such trivia floating about. It
wouldn't be dependable. But it did measure the exact distance to the
nearest solid object.

"Prepare for firing on a count of five," said Joe quietly. "Five ...
four ... three ... two ... one ... fire!"

The space tug's rockets blasted. For the first time since they overtook
the Moonship, the tug now had help. The remaining rockets outside the
Moonship's hull blasted furiously. Out the ports there was nothing but
hurtling whitenesses. The rockets droned and rumbled and roared....

The main rockets burned out. The steering rockets still boomed. Joe had
thrown them on for what good their lift might do.

"Joe!" said Haney in a surprised tone. "I feel weight! Not much, but
some! And the main rockets are off!"

Joe nodded. He watched the instruments before him. He shifted a control,
and the space tug swayed. It swayed over to the limit of the tow-chain
it had fastened to the Moonship. Joe shifted his controls again.

There was a peculiar, gritty contact somewhere. Joe cut the steering
rockets and it was possible to look out. There were more gritty noises.
The space tug settled a little and leaned a little. It was still. Then
there was no noise at all.

"Yes," said Joe. "We've got some weight. We're on the Moon."

They went out of the ship in a peculiarly solemn procession. About them
reared cliffs such as no man had ever looked on befo