«Uh? Well, all right.» He could have made it a thousand; I didn't care.

«Fine. King's pawn to king three.»

«Uh – king's pawn to king's four.»

«Conventional, aren't you? Puts me in mind of a girl I knew in Hoboken – « What he told about her had nothing to do with chess, although it did prove she was conventional, in a manner of speaking. «King's bishop to queen's bishop four. Remind me to tell you about her sister, too. Seems she hadn't always been a redhead, but she wanted people to think so. So she – sorry. Go ahead with your move.»

I tried to think but my head was spinning. «Queen's pawn to queen three.»

«Queen to king's bishop three. Anyhow, she – « He went on in great detail. It wasn't new and I doubt if it ever happened to him, but it cheered me up. I actually smiled, there in the dark. «It's your move,» he added.

«Oh.» I couldn't remember the board. I decided to get ready to castle, always fairly safe in the early game. «Queen's knight to queen's bishop three.»

«Queen advances to capture your king's bishop's pawn – checkmate. You owe me twenty, Jack.»

«Huh? Why that can't be!»

«Want to run over the moves?» He checked them off.

I managed to visualize them, then said, «Why, I'll be a dirty name! You hooked me with a fool's mate!»

He chuckled. «You should have kept your eye on my queen instead of on the redhead.»

I laughed out loud. «Know any more stories?»

«Sure.» He told another. But when I urged him to go on, he said, «I think I'll just rest a little while, Jack.»

I got up. «You all right, Fats?» He didn't answer; I felt my way over to him in the dark. His face was cold and he didn't speak when I touched him. I could hear his heart faintly when I pressed an ear to his chest, but his hands and feet were like ice.

I had to pull him loose; he was frozen to the spot. I could feel the ice, though I knew it must be blood. I started to try to revive him by rubbing him, but the hissing of the leak brought me up short. I tore off my own trousers, had a panicky time before I found the exact spot in the dark, and sat down on it, with my right buttock pressed firmly against the opening.

It grabbed me like a suction cup, icy cold. Then it was fire spreading through my flesh. After a time I couldn't feel anything at all, except a dull ache and coldness.

There was a light someplace. It flickered on, then went out again. I heard a door clang. I started to shout.

«Knowles!» I screamed. «Mr. Knowles!»

The light flickered on again. «Coming, Jack – »

I started to blubber. «Oh, you made it! You made it.»

«I didn't make it, Jack. I couldn't reach the next section. When I got back to the lock I passed out.» He stopped to wheeze. «There's a crater – « The light flickered off and fell clanging to the floor. «Help me, Jack,» he said querulously. «Can't you see I need help? I tried to – »

I heard him stumble and fall. I called to him, but he didn't answer.

I tried to get up, but I was stuck fast, a cork in a bottle …

I came to, lying face down – with a clean sheet under me. «Feeling better?» someone asked. It was Knowles, standing by my bed, dressed in a bathrobe.

«You're dead,» I told him.

«Not a bit.» He grinned. «They got to us in tune.»

«What happened?» I stared at him, still not believing my eyes.

«Just like we thought – a crashed rocket. An unmanned mail rocket got out of control and hit the tunnel.»

«Where's Fats?»

«Hi!»

I twisted my head around; it was Konski, face down like myself.

«You owe me twenty,» he said cheerfully.

«I owe you – « I found I was dripping tears for no good reason. «Okay, I owe you twenty. But you'll have to come to Des Moines to collect it.»

The Black Pits of Luna

The morning after we got to the Moon we went over to Rutherford. Dad and Mr. Latham – Mr. Latham is the man from the Harriman Trust that Dad came to Luna City to see – Dad and Mr. Latham had to go anyhow, on business. I got Dad to promise I could go along because it looked like just about my only chance to get out on the surface of the Moon. Luna City is all right, I guess, but I defy you to tell a corridor in Luna City from the sublevels in New York – except that you're light on your feet, of course.

When Dad came into our hotel suite to say we were ready to leave, I was down on the floor, playing mumblety-peg with my kid brother. Mother was lying down and had asked me to keep the runt quiet. She had been dropsick all the way out from Earth and I guess she didn't feel very good. The runt had been fiddling with the lights, switching them from «dusk» to «desert suntan» and back again. I collared him and sat him down on the floor.

Of course, I don't play mumblety-peg any more, but, on the Moon, it's a right good game. The knife practically floats and you can do all kinds of things with it. We made up a lot of new rules.

Dad said, «Switch in plans, my dear. We're leaving for Rutherford right away. Let's pull ourselves together.»

Mother said, «Oh, mercy me – I don't think I'm up to it. You and Dickie run along. Baby Darling and I will just spend a quiet day right here.»

Baby Darling is the runt.

I could have told her it was the wrong approach. He nearly put my eye out with the knife and said, «Who? What? I'm going too. Let's go!»

Mother said, «Oh, now, Baby Darling – don't cause Mother Dear any trouble. We'll go to the movies, just you and I.»

The runt is seven years younger than I am, but don't call him «Baby Darling» if you want to get anything out of him. He started to bawl. «You said I could go!» he yelled.

«No, Baby Darling. I haven't mentioned it to you. I – »

«Daddy said I could go!»

«Richard, did you tell Baby he could go?»

«Why, no, my dear, not that I recall. Perhaps I – »

The kid cut in fast. «You said I could go anywhere Dickie went. You promised me you promised me you promised me.» Sometimes you have to hand it to the runt; he had them jawing about who told him what in nothing flat. Anyhow, this is how, twenty minutes later, the four of us were up at the rocket port with Mr. Latham and climbing into the shuttle for Rutherford.

The trip only takes about ten minutes and you don't see much, just a glimpse of the Earth while the rocket is still near Luna City and then not even that, since the atom plants where we were going are all on the back side of the Moon, of course. There were maybe a dozen tourists along and most of them were dropsick as soon as we went into free flight. So was Mother. Some people never will get used to rockets.

But Mother was all right as soon as we grounded and were inside again. Rutherford isn't like Luna City; instead of extending a tube out to the ship, they send a pressurized car out to latch on to the airlock of the rocket, then you jeep back about a mile to the entrance to underground. I liked that and so did the runt. Dad had to go off on business with Mr. Latham, leaving Mother and me and the runt to join up with the party of tourists for the trip through the laboratories.

It was all right but nothing to get excited about. So far as I can see, one atomics plant looks about like another; Rutherford could just as well have been the main plant outside Chicago. I mean to say everything that is anything is out of sight, covered up, shielded. All you get to see are some dials and instrument boards and people watching them. Remote control stuff, like Oak Ridge. The guide tells you about the experiments going on and they show you some movies – that's all.

I liked our guide. He looked like Tom Jeremy in The Space Troopers. I asked him if he was a spaceman and he looked at me kind of funny and said, no, that he was just a Colonial Services ranger. Then he asked me where I went to school and if I belonged to the Scouts. He said he was scoutmaster of Troop One, Rutherford City, Moonbat Patrol.