eason I can figure why we didn't wind up as permanent part of
the scenery around here is because of the course we were on."

"How do you figure that?" asked Astro.

"Luckily--and I _mean_ luckily, we were on a course that took us smack
onto the surface of Mars. And our speed was great enough to resist the
gravity pull of the planet, keeping us horizontal with the surface of
the desert. We skidded in like a kid does on a sled, instead of coming
in on our nose!"

"Well, blast my jets!" said Astro softly.

"In that case," said Roger, "we must have left a pretty long skid mark
in back of us!"

"That should be easy to see when the jet scouts come looking for us,"
commented Astro.

"I wonder if we could rig up some sort of emergency signal so we could
send out a relative position?"

"How are you going to get the position?" asked Astro.

"I can give you some sort of position as soon as I get outside and take
a sight on the sun," replied Roger.

"Can you do it without your astrogation prism?" asked Astro.

"Navigation, not astrogation, Astro," said Roger. "Like the ancient
sailors used on the oceans back on Earth hundreds of years ago. Only
thing is, I'll have to work up the logarithms by hand, instead of using
the computer. Might be a little rough, but it'll be close enough for
what we want."

The three cadets finished the remaining sandwiches and then picked their
way back through the ship to the control deck. There, they rummaged
through the pile of broken and shattered instruments.

"If we could find just one tube that hasn't been damaged, I think I
might be able to rig up some sort of one-lung communications set," said
Roger. "It might have enough range to get a message to the nearest
atmosphere booster station."

"Nothing but a pile of junk here, Roger," said Tom. "We might find
something on the radar deck."

The three members of the _Polaris_ unit climbed over the rubble and made
their way to the radar deck, and started their search for an undamaged
tube. After forty-five minutes of searching, Roger stood up in disgust.

"Nothing!" he said sourly.

"That kills any hope of getting a message out," said Tom.

"By the craters of Luna," said Astro, wiping his forehead. "I didn't
notice it before, but it's getting hotter here than on the power deck on
a trip to Mercury!"

"Do we have any flares?" asked Roger.

"Naw. Al James used them all," answered Tom.

"That does it," said Roger. "In another couple