ave us pressure just in
the last minutes, to slide a few of the hull plates. But our bow
stayed down. We slid, like a spent rocket falling.

I recall the horror of that expanding Lunar surface. The maw of
Archimedes yawning. A blob. Widening to a great pit. Then I saw it was
to one side, rushing upward.

"Gregg, dear one--good-bye."

Her gentle arms about me. The end of everything for us. I recall
murmuring, "Not falling free, Anita. Some hull plates are set."

My dials showed another plate shifting, checking us a little further.
Good old Snap!

I calculated the next best plate to shift. I tried it. Slid it over.

Then everything faded but the feeling of Anita's arms around me.

"Gregg, dear one--"

The end of everything for us....

There was an up-rush of gray-black rock.

XXII

I opened my eyes to a dark blur of confusion. My shoulder hurt--a pain
shooting through it. Something lay like a weight on me. I could not
seem to move my left arm. Then I moved it and it hurt. I was lying
twisted. I sat up. And with a rush, memory came. The crash was over. I
was not dead. Anita--

She was lying beside me. There was a little light here in the silent
blur--a soft mellow Earthlight filtering in the window. The weight on
me was Anita. She lay sprawled, her head and shoulders half way across
my lap.

Not dead! Thank God, not dead! She moved. Her arms went around me, and
I lifted her. The Earthlight glowed on her pale face.

"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and we're still alive."

I held her as though all of life's turgid dangers were powerless to
touch us.

But in the silence my floating senses were brought back to reality by
a faint sound forcing itself upon me. A little hiss. The faintest
murmuring breath like a hiss. Escaping air!

I cast off Anita's clinging arms. "Anita, this is madness!"

For minutes we must have been lying there in the heaven of our
embrace. But air was escaping! The _Planetara's_ dome was broken and
our precious air was hissing out.

Full reality came to me. I was not seriously injured. I found I could
move freely. I could stand. A twisted shoulder, a limp left arm, but
they were better in a moment.

And Anita did not seem to be hurt. Blood was upon her. But not her
own.

Beside Anita, stretched face down on the turret grid, was the giant
figure of Miko. The blood lay in a small pool against his face. A
widening pool.

Moa was here. I thought her body twitched; then w