of
action. We had to follow it through.

We ate a meager supper. The brief dusk changed to a night blazing with
frigid stars. But the darkness on the ground remained until the jagged
lump of light that was Phobos, the nearer moon, arose out of the west.
Then we saw two shapes rushing toward our ship to find cover closer to
it. As they hid themselves behind a clump of cactiform shrubs, I had
only the memory of how I had seen them for a moment, their odd masks
and accoutrements glinting, their supporting tendrils looking like
tattered rags come alive in the dim moonlight.

* * * * *

We'd turned the light out in our cabin, so we couldn't be seen through
the windows. But now we heard soft, scraping sounds against the outer
skin of our rocket. Probably they meant that the Martians were trying
to get in. I began to sweat all over, because I knew what Miller meant
to do. Here was a situation that we had visualized beforehand.

"We could shut them out till dawn, Miller," I whispered hoarsely.
"We'd all feel better if the meeting took place in day-light. And
there'd be less chance of things going wrong."

But Miller said, "We can't tell what they'd be doing in the dark
meanwhile, Nolan. Maybe fixing to blow us up. So we'd better get this
thing over with now."

I knew he was right. Active resistance to the Martians could never
save us, if they intended to destroy us. We might have taken the
rocket off the ground like a plane, seeking safety in the upper air
for a while, if we could get it launched that way from the rough
terrain. But using our jets might kill some of the Martians just
outside. They could interpret it as a hostile act.

We didn't matter much, except to ourselves. And our primary objective
was to make friendly contact with the beings of this planet, without
friction, if it could be done. If we failed, space travel might become
a genuine menace to Earth.

At Miller's order, Craig turned on our cabin lights. Miller pressed
the controls of our ship's airlock. While its outer valve remained
wide, the inner valve unsealed itself and swung slowly toward us. Our
air whooshed out.

The opening of that inner valve meant we were letting horror in. We
kept out of line of possible fire through the open door.

Our idea was to control our instinctive reactions to strangeness, to
remain passive, giving the Martians a chance to get over their own
probable terror of us by finding out tha