e that what he had just said was entirely the truth.

So he added: "I don't mean it, Honey. I'm just griping."

She softened. "You've got to eat, Johnny," she said. "You haven't eaten
all day. And tonight you've got to sleep. I'll keep watch. Maybe it'll
be all right...."

Well, anyway it was nice to know that his wife was like that.
Yeah--gentle, and fairminded. After they had all eaten supper, he tried
hard to keep awake. Fear helped him to do so more than ever. Their tent
was now covered by the rising plastic roof--but beyond the clear
substance, he could still watch for starlight to be stopped by prowling
forms, out there at the jagged rim of Vesta. It was hell to feel your
skin puckering, and yet to have exhaustion pushing your eyelids down
inexorably....

Somewhere he lost the hold on himself. And he dreamed that Alf Neely and
he were fighting with their fists. And he was being beaten to a pulp.
But he was wishing desperately that he could win. Then they could have a
drink, and maybe be friends. But he knew hopelessly that things weren't
quite that simple, either.

* * * * *

He awoke to blink at blazing sunshine. Then his whole body became clammy
with perspiration, as he thought of his lapse from responsibility;
glancing over, he saw that Rose was sleeping as soundly as the kids. His
wide eyes searched for the disaster that he knew he'd find....

But the wide roof was all the way up, now--intact. It made a great,
squarish bubble, the skin of which was specially treated to stop the
hard and dangerous part of the ultra-violet rays of the sun, and also
the lethal portion of the cosmic rays. It even had an inter-skin layer
of gum that could seal the punctures that grain-of-sand-sized meteors
might make. But meteors, though plentiful in the asteroid belt, were
curiously innocuous. They all moved in much the same direction as the
large asteroids, and at much the same velocity--so their relative speed
had to be low.

The walls of the small tent around Endlich sagged, where they had bulged
tautly before--showing that there was now a firm and equal pressure
beyond them. The electrolysis apparatus had been left active all night,
and the heating units. This was the result.

John Endlich was at first almost unbelieving when he saw that nothing
had been wrecked during the night. For a moment he was elated. He woke
up his family by shouting: "Look! The bums stayed away! They didn't
com