fifteen feet apart. The third,
attached to them by safety lines, was hanging face down above the
surface, rising slowly, like a balloon that has almost more weight than
it can lift.

"No, no, _no_, Mr. Danley! You are not _crawling_, Mr. Danley, you are
climbing! Do you understand that? _Climbing!_ You have to _climb_ an
asteroid, just as you would climb a cliff on Earth. You have to hold on
every second of the time, or you will fall off!" St. Simon's voice
sounded harsh in Danley's earphones, and he felt irritatingly helpless
poised floatingly above the ground that way.

His instructors were well anchored by metal eyes set into the rocky
surface for just that purpose. Although Pallas was mostly nickel-iron,
this end of it was stony, which was why it had been selected as a
training ground.

"_Well?_" snapped St. Simon. "What do you do now? If this were a small
rock, you'd be drifting a long ways away by now. Think, Mr. Danley,
_think_."

"Then shut up and let me think!" Danley snarled.

"If small things distract you from thinking about the vital necessity of
saving your own life, Mr. Danley, you would not live long in the Belt."

Danley reached out an arm to see if he could touch the ground. When he
had pushed himself upwards with a thrust of his knee, he hadn't given
himself too hard a shove. He had reached the apex of his slow flight,
and was drifting downward again. He grasped a jutting rock and pulled
himself back to the surface.

"Very good, Mr. Danley--but that wouldn't work on a small rock. You took
too long. What would you have done on a rock with a millionth of a gee
of pull?"

Danley was silent.

"_Well?_" St. Simon barked. "_What would you do?_"

"I ... I don't know," Danley admitted.

"Ye gods and little fishhooks!" This was Kerry Brand's voice. It was
supposed to be St. Simon's turn to give the verbal instructions, but
Brand allowed himself an occasional remark when it was appropriate.

St. Simon's voice was bitingly sweet. "What do you think those safety
lines are for, Mr. Danley? Do you think they are for decorative
purposes?"

"Well ... I thought I was supposed to think of some other way. I mean,
that's so obvious--"

"Mr. Danley," St. Simon said with sudden patience, "we are not here to
give you riddles to solve. We're here to teach you how to stay alive in
the Belt. And one of the first rules you must learn is that you will
_never_ leave your boat without a safety line. _Never!_