tense
duty man sat bending over his radio receivers. The mirrors were
swaying.

The duty man looked up and met Grantline's gaze.

"I ran it up to the highest intensity, Commander. We ought to get
it--"

"Low scale, Peter?"

"Yes. Weakest infra-red. I'm bringing it up, even though it uses too
much of our power."

"Get it," said Grantline shortly.

"I got one slight television swing a minute ago--then it faded. I
think it's the _Planetara_."

"_Planetara_!" The crowding group of men chorused. How could it be the
_Planetara_?

But it was. The call came in presently. Unmistakably the _Planetara_,
turned back now from her course to Ferrok-Shahn.

"How far away, Peter?"

The duty man consulted the needles of his dial scale. "Close! Very
weak infra-red. But close. Around thirty thousand miles, maybe. It's
Snap Dean calling."

The _Planetara_ here within thirty thousand miles! Excitement and
pleasure swept the room. The _Planetara_ had for so long been awaited
eagerly!

The excitement communicated to Grantline. It was unlike him to be
incautious; yet now with no thought save that some unforeseen and
pleasing circumstance had brought the _Planetara_ ahead of time;
incautious, Grantline certainly was!

"Raise the barrage."

"I'll go. My suit is here."

A willing volunteer rushed out to the shed.

"Can you send, Peter?" Grantline demanded.

"Yes. With more power."

"Use it."

Johnny dictated the message of his location which we received. In his
incautious excitement he ignored the secret code.

An interval passed. No message had come from us--just Snap's routine
signal in the weak infra-red, which we hoped Grantline would not get.

The men crowding Grantline's instrument room waited in tense silence.
Then Grantline tried the television again. Its current weakened the
lights with the drain upon the distributors, and cooled the room with
a sudden deadly chill as the Erentz insulating system slowed down.

The duty man looked frightened. "You'll bulge out our walls,
Commander. The internal pressure--"

"We'll chance it."

They picked up the image of the _Planetara_. It shone clear on the
grid--the segment of star-field with a tiny cigar-shaped blob. Clear
enough to be unmistakable. The _Planetara_! Here now, over the Moon,
almost directly overhead, poised at what the altimeter scale showed to
be a fraction under thirty thousand miles.

The men gazed in awed silence. The _Planetara_ coming....

B