aid slowly as he rose, "is that I'm
one-_fourth_ Indian and even that.... Didn't I ever tell you that my
great-grandfather was the only Arapahoe scout who was with Custer at the
Little Big Horn? He'd been positive Sitting Bull was miles away.
However, I'll do my best. And if I heroically don't come back, would you
please persuade the Security Officer of our section to clear my name for
use in the history books? Under the circumstances, I think it's the
least he could do."

I promised to do my best, of course.

* * * * *

After he took off, I sat in the dome over the telephone connection to
Tom and hated myself for picking Monroe to do the job. But I'd have
hated myself just as much for picking Tom. And if anything happened and
I had to tell Tom to blast off, I'd probably be sitting here in the dome
all by myself after that, waiting....

"_Broz neggle!_" came over the radio in Monroe's resonant voice. He had
landed the single-seater.

I didn't dare use the telephone to chat with Tom in the ship, for fear I
might miss an important word or phrase from our scout. So I sat and sat
and strained my ears. After a while, I heard "_Mishgashu!_" which told
me that Monroe was in the neighborhood of the other dome and was
creeping toward it under cover of whatever boulders were around.

[Illustration]

And then, abruptly, I heard Monroe yell my name and there was a terrific
clattering in my headphones. Radio interference! He'd been caught, and
whoever had caught him had simultaneously jammed his suit transmitter
with a larger transmitter from the alien dome.

Then there was silence.

After a while, I told Tom what had happened. He just said, "Poor
Monroe." I had a good idea of what his expression was like.

"Look, Tom," I said, "if you take off now, you still won't have anything
important to tell. After capturing Monroe, whatever's in that other dome
will come looking for us, I think. I'll let them get close enough for us
to learn something of their appearance--at least if they're human or
non-human. Any bit of information about them is important. I'll shout it
up to you and you'll still be able to take off in plenty of time. All
right?"

"You're the boss, Colonel," he said in a mournful voice. "Lots of luck."

And then there was nothing to do but wait. There was no oxygen system in
the dome yet, so I had to squeeze up a sandwich from the food
compartment in my suit. I sat there, thinkin