escaping!"

But he sank back and lay still. No time to find if I could help him:
there was Anita and Snap to save.

We found a broken entrance to one of the descending passages. I flung
the debris aside and cleared it. Like a giant of strength with only
this Moon gravity holding me, I raised a broken segment of
superstructure and heaved it back.

Anita and I dropped ourselves down the sloping passage. The interior
of the wrecked ship was silent and dim. An occasional passage light
was still burning. The passage and all the rooms lay askew. Wreckage
everywhere but the double dome and hull shell had withstood the shock.
Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat,
like our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling on
everything. The silence and the deadly chill of death would soon be
here in these wrecked corridors. The end of the _Planetara_.

We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by the
shifter pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled.
Dead? No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemed
confused, but his senses clarified with the movement of our figures
over him.

"Gregg! Why, Anita!"

"Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping."

He pushed me away. He tried to stand. "I'm all right. I was up a
minute ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had her
here--she wasn't killed. I spoke to her."

Irrational!

"Snap!" I held him. Shook him. "Snap, old fellow!"

He said normally, "Easy, Gregg. I'm all right."

Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?"

"She--there she is...."

Another figure was here! On the grid floor by the door oval. A figure
partly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hook. An invisible
cloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me.

"Venza!" I bent down. "You!"

Venza here? Why ... how ... my thoughts swept on. Venza here--dying?
Her eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita, "Where is he? I want him."

I murmured impulsively, "Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as one would
speak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. "Here I am, Venza."

But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was upon
us all. She pushed at Anita. "I want him." She saw me; this whimsical
Venus girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by shock,
confused in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill of death coming--even
here she could jest. Her pale lips smiled.

"You, Gregg. I