, he sang a song
that Kipling might have been startled to recognize:

_"To the tables down at Mory's,
To the place where Louie dwells,
Where it's always double drill and no canteen,
Sit the Whiffenpoofs assembled,
With their glasses raised on high,
And they'll get a swig in Hell from Gunga Din."_

When the drill was firmly based on the surface of the planetoid, St.
Simon hauled his way back to his ship along his safety line. Inside, he
sat down in the control chair and backed well away from the slowly
spinning hunk of rock. Now there was only one thin pair of wires
stretching between his ship and the drill on the asteroid.

When he was a good fifty meters away, he took one last look to make sure
everything was as it should be.

"Stand by for a broadside!"

"Standing by, sir!"

"You may fire when ready, Gridley!"

"Aye, sir! Rockets away!" His forefinger descended on a button which
sent a pulse of current through the pair of wires that trailed out the
open door to the drill fifty meters away.

A flare of light appeared on the top of the drill. Almost immediately,
it developed into a tongue of rocket flame. Then a glow appeared at the
base of the drill and flame began to billow out from beneath the tube.
The drill began to sink into the surface, and the planetoid began to
move ever so slowly.

The drill was essentially a pair of opposed rockets. The upper one,
which tried to push the drill into the surface of the planetoid,
developed nearly forty per cent more thrust than the lower one. Thus,
the lower one, which was trying to push the drill _off_ the rock, was
outmatched. It had to back up, if possible. And it was certainly
possible; the exhaust flame of the lower rocket easily burrowed a hole
that the rocket could back into, while the silicate rock boiled and
vaporized in order to get out of the way.

Soon there was no sign of the drill body itself. There was only a small
volcano, spewing up gas and liquid from a hole in the rock. On the
surface of a good-sized planet, the drill would have built up a little
volcanic cone around the lip of the hole, but building a cone like that
requires enough gravity to pull the hot matter back to the edge of the
hole.

The fireworks didn't last long. The drill wasn't built to go in too
deep. A drill of that type could be built which would burrow its way
right through a small planetoid, but that was hardly necessary for
planting an anchor. T