the valve wide. Lehman, hand me that
pipe wrench!"

Cowalczk hit the shaft with the back of the pipe wrench, and it broke at
the motor bearing.

Cowalczk and Lehman fitted the pipe wrench to the gear on the valve, and
turned it.

"Is the light off?" Cowalczk asked.

"No," Cade answered.

"Water's stopped. Give us some pressure, we'll see if it holds."

"Twenty pounds," Cade answered after a couple of minutes.

"Take her up to ... no, wait, it's still leaking," Cowalczk said. "Hold
it there, we'll open the valve again."

"O.K.," said Cade. "An engineer here says there's no manual cutoff."

"Like Hell," said Lehman.

Cowalczk and Lehman opened the valve again. Water spurted out, and
dwindled as they closed the valve.

"What did you do?" asked Cade. "The light went out and came on again."

"Check that circuit and see if it works," Cowalczk instructed.

There was a pause.

"It's O.K.," Cade said.

Cowalczk and Lehman opened and closed the valve again.

"Light is off now," Cade said.

"Good," said Cowalczk, "take the pressure up all the way, and we'll see
what happens."

"Eight hundred pounds," Cade said, after a short wait.

"Good enough," Cowalczk said. "Tell that engineer to hold up a while, he
can fix this thing as soon as he gets parts. Come on, Lehman, let's get
out of here."

"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Cade. "You guys had me worried for a
while."

"Think we weren't worried?" Lehman asked. "And it's not over."

"What?" Cade asked. "Oh, you mean the valve servo you two bashed up?"

"No," said Lehman, "I mean the two thousand gallons of water that we
lost."

"Two thousand?" Cade asked. "We only had seven hundred gallons reserve.
How come we can operate now?"

"We picked up twelve hundred from the town sewage plant. What with using
the solar furnace as a radiator, we can make do."

"Oh, God, I suppose this means water rationing again."

"You're probably right, at least until the next rocket lands in a couple
of weeks."

* * * * *

PROSPECTOR FEARED LOST ON MOON

IPP Williamson Town, Moon, Sept. 21st. Scientific survey director
McIlroy released a statement today that Howard Evans, a prospector
is missing and presumed lost. Evans, who was apparently exploring
the Moon in search of minerals was due two days ago, but it was
presumed that he was merely temporarily delayed.

Evans began his exploration on Augus