e things, of course,
that were not supposed to happen in space, and often did. Every
precaution had been taken against it. The outer shell of the ship was
tough enough to stop medium-velocity meteoroids, and inside the shell
was a self-sealing goo, like a tubeless tire. Evidently the goo hadn't
worked. Something had got through the hull and made a pinhole leak. In
fact the hole was so small that it had taken me nearly thirty-five
hours to compute the rate of leakage exactly. But it was big enough,
it would do.

I had held the clipboard in my hand for a long time, rechecking the
little black numbers on it again and again. Then I had warmed up the
transmitter, raised Lunar Base, and reported what had happened. I had
not reported before because I had not even been sure I had a leak.
There's a normal seepage rate, of course; a certain amount of air will
seep right through the molecular structure of the hull. That's what
the reserve tanks are for. But I had been out a long time, and there
wasn't enough left in the tanks to compensate for this. Not quite.

So I reported to Base. The operator on the other end told me to stand
by for instructions. That was for my morale. Then I spent some time
thinking about Pacific Grove, and the white house there, and the stand
of eucalyptus. Then I blew up the balloon and popped it. As I was
watching the piece of rubber hang motionless in the air the receiver
began clicking. I waited till it stopped, then pulled out the tape and
read it. It said, HAVE YOU INSPECTED HULL? I switched on the send key
and tapped out, JUST GOING TO. STAND BY.

I opened the locker and broke out my spacesuit. This was the first
time I had put it on since lift-off. Without help, it took me nearly
half an hour to get it on and then check it out. I always did hate
wearing a spacesuit, it's like a straitjacket. In theory I could have
kept it on, plugged directly into the ship's oxygen supply, and ridden
all the way back to Earth that way. The trouble with that idea was
that the suit wasn't designed for it. You couldn't eat or drink
through the helmet, and no one had ever thought up a satisfactory
method of removing body wastes. That would be the worst way to go, I
thought, poisoned slowly in my own juices.

When I finally did get the thing on, I went out the air lock. If the
leak had been bad enough, I would have been able to see the air
spurting out through the hole, a miniature geyser. But I found no more
than w