nced Connel. "We'll pair off, two to a jet boat.
Astro and Roger, Alfie and Mr. Shinny, Tom and myself. This is a simple
test." He held up a delicate instrument and a vial full of colorless
liquid. "You simply pour a little of this liquid, about a spoonful, on
the ground, wait about five minutes, and then stick the end of this into
the spot where you poured the liquid." He held up a two-foot steel shaft
a quarter inch in diameter, fastened to a clock-face gauge with numbers
from one to a thousand. The other end of the shaft was needle sharp.
"When you stick this into the ground, there'll be a reading on the
meter. Relay it to me. This way well get an estimate of the amount of
copper in a three-mile area for a depth of a hundred feet. It must be
more than two hundred tons per square mile to make it worth while!"

He held up the testing equipment for all to see and explained its use
once more. Then, giving each team a kit, he ordered them to the jet
boats.

Just before the crew of Earthmen left the _Polaris_, Connel gave them
last-minute instructions.

"Report back to the _Polaris_ in one hour. Make as many tests as you can
over as wide an area as possible. Don't forget to leave one man in the
jet boat while the other is making the test. Keep your audio
communicator in the jet boat on at all times. And be sure your belt
communicator is always open. Check your oxygen supply and space suits.
All clear?"

One by one, the spacemen checked in through the audio communicators that
all was clear. The sliding hatch on the side of the _Polaris_ was
opened, and the jet boats blasted out into the brilliant sunlight of
Alpha Centauri, going in three different directions.

Tom piloted his small craft over the rugged surface of the satellite,
circling the larger peaks and swooping into the small valleys. Connel
would indicate when it was time to stop, and Tom would set the craft
down. While Connel made the tests, Tom would talk to the others over the
audio communicators. The three small ships covered the satellite quickly
in evenly divided sections, reporting their readings on the needlelike
instrument to Connel, who kept recording the reports on a pad at his
knee.

An hour later the boats returned to the _Polaris_ and the Earthmen
assembled in the control room. Connel, Tom, and Alfie were busy reducing
the readings of the tests into recognizable copper ton estimates per
square mile.

Finally Connel turned around, wiped his bro