moved at night to avoid congestion.

"When I was a college kid, I used to hitchhike sometimes," Craig
remarked.

"I don't guess we had better try that here," Klein said. "What we can
do is more of a hobo stunt."

We found the westerly direction we needed easily enough from the
stars. The constellations naturally looked the same as they did at
home. We hid behind some rustling leaves, dry as paper, and waited for
the next truck train to pass. When one came, we used the agility which
Martian gravity gave us and rushed for the tail-end wagon and
scrambled aboard. There we hid ourselves under a kind of
coarse-fibered tarpaulin.

Peering past boxes and bales, we kept cautious watch of the road. We
saw strange placques, which might have served as highway signs. Again
we saw buildings and passing lights.

We were dopes, of course, ever to think that we were going to get away
with this. Our overwrought nerves had urged us to unreasoning
rebellion, and we had yielded to them.

* * * * *

Our last hope was punctured when at last we saw the flood-lights that
bathed our ship. The taste on my tongue was suddenly bitter. There
were roughly three things we could do now, and none of the choices was
especially attractive.

We could go back where we had come from. We could try to keep
concealed in the countryside, until we were finally hunted down, or
until our helmet air-purifiers wore out and we smothered. Or we could
proceed to our rocket, which was now surrounded by a horde of
Martians. Whichever one we chose, it looked as if the end would be the
same--death.

"I'm for going on to the ship," Klein said in a harsh whisper.

"The same with me," Craig agreed. "It's where we want to go. If
they're going to kill or capture us, it might as well be there."

Suddenly, for no good reason, I thought of something. No special
safeguards had been set up around that sealed room in the city.

Escape had been easy. What did that mean?

"Okay," I said. "Maybe you've both got the same hunch I just got. We
walk very slowly toward our rocket. We get into the light as soon as
possible. Does that sound right to you? We'd be going back to the
plan. And, it could be, to common sense."

"All right," Klein answered.

"We'll give it a whirl," Craig agreed.

We jumped off that freight wagon at the proper moment and moved toward
the rocket. Nothing that we'd done on Mars--not even making our first
acquaintance