snake.]

"Try to keep going, Val." My gloved hand reached out and clumsily
enfolded hers. "Come on, kid. Remember--we're doing this for Earth.
We're heroes."

She glared at me. "Heroes, hell!" she muttered. "That's the way it
looked back home, but, out there it doesn't seem so glorious. And
UranCo's pay is stinking."

"We didn't come out here for the pay, Val."

"I know, I know, but just the same--"

It must have been hell for her. We had wandered fruitlessly over the red
sands all day, both of us listening for the clicks of the counter. And
the geigers had been obstinately hushed all day, except for their
constant undercurrent of meaningless noises.

Even though the Martian gravity was only a fraction of Earth's, I was
starting to tire, and I knew it must have been really rough on Val with
her lovely but unrugged legs.

"Heroes," she said bitterly. "We're not heroes--we're suckers! Why did I
ever let you volunteer for the Geig Corps and drag me along?"

Which wasn't anywhere close to the truth. Now I knew she was at the
breaking point, because Val didn't lie unless she was so exhausted she
didn't know what she was doing. She had been just as much inflamed by
the idea of coming to Mars to help in the search for uranium as I was.
We knew the pay was poor, but we had felt it a sort of obligation,
something we could do as individuals to keep the industries of
radioactives-starved Earth going. And we'd always had a roving foot,
both of us.

No, we had decided together to come to Mars--the way we decided together
on everything. Now she was turning against me.

* * * * *

I tried to jolly her. "Buck up, kid," I said. I didn't dare turn up her
oxy pressure any higher, but it was obvious she couldn't keep going. She
was almost sleep-walking now.

We pressed on over the barren terrain. The geiger kept up a fairly
steady click-pattern, but never broke into that sudden explosive tumult
that meant we had found pay-dirt. I started to feel tired myself,
terribly tired. I longed to lie down on the soft, spongy Martian sand
and bury myself.

I looked at Val. She was dragging along with her eyes half-shut. I felt
almost guilty for having dragged her out to Mars, until I recalled that
I hadn't. In fact, she had come up with the idea before I did. I wished
there was some way of turning the weary, bedraggled girl at my side back
into the Val who had so enthusiastically suggested we join the G