n hour and a half from now."

Rick thought that was cutting it fine, but he made no further comment.

Both boys had checked the map again, and knew the route to follow.
Scotty drove through the base and onto the access road that led to the
firing areas. In a short time they had a clear view of Orion waiting on
its pad, project personnel swarming over the gantry crane as they
performed a variety of last-day chores. The sight filled Rick with
excitement. To-morrow he would see the big rocket go up.

"Pretty," Scotty said.

Rick nodded. Orion was a beautiful sight. Its lines were clean, and its
paint job was colorful, mixing white with high-visibility colors to
allow greater ease of visual tracking.

"Blockhouse ahead," Scotty pointed out.

It was the first time either of them had seen the blockhouse, the
control point from which the rockets were fired. It was within a mile of
the concrete firing pads, close enough to be in great danger from wild
rockets that had gone out of control. For that reason it was made of
heavily reinforced concrete, several feet thick. It could take a direct
hit from even the biggest rockets without harm to the personnel inside.

Then the firing area was passed and the jeep sped along next to the
miles-long black, oiled path of the airstrip. Soon the strip was behind,
then the level floor of the dry lake bed became rough terrain and the
jeep began to climb toward the foothills.

"Isn't there a guard post this way?" Rick asked.

"Should be."

There was, a few miles beyond, as the jeep mounted the foothills and
went through a pass. The guard inspected their badges, then waved them
on. They were outside of the base area now.

The dirt road led them across a valley and up a gradual slope to another
pass through the mountains. This time, as they emerged, Rick pointed to
a flat-topped mountain directly ahead. "That's a mesa," he declared.
"Suppose it's the right one?"

Scotty squinted against the glare. "Probably. I don't see any others on
the horizon."

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Rick asked.

Scotty waved a hand. "Look, and hope there's something to see."

"Okay. Let it go. We'll wait and see." Rick fell silent, watching the
desert. It was odd, he thought, that most people thought of deserts in
terms of sand. It was a fact that some deserts were sandy, but this one
was composed of hard-packed earth and stones in which plants struggled
for survival. It was more like