[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories February 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Brainard died on the third day after they set out from the wreck. CarlReese and the girl, Thela Brill, scraped a grave in the sand with flatpieces of rock, and laid him in it on the litter they had used to carryhim. They covered it with rocks to keep the sand wolves out, and setoff again across the desert.
That day they did not go far. The sun came down through the cloudlessMartian sky like a hammer. Every hour or so they had to creep into theshadow of the rocks and rest. It was about mid-afternoon when the girlcollapsed. Carl carried her to one of the shallow caves in the cliffsthat were growing more numerous, and gave her the water flask to sip.
Her blond hair was grayed with powdery sand, and Carl saw there werehollows now under her reddened eyes, but even with the strain offatigue, her clean-featured face was beautiful. He watched her slenderthroat as she sipped the water.
He thought, She can't stand much more of this. She's not built for it.
The flask was still heavy when she handed it back.
"You'll need more than that to keep you going till sundown," he said.
She shook her head. "You better go on alone. It's getting so I can'tsee very well."
Carl Reese looked out at the crumbling rock and sand. It was not theheat that got you. The middle of this desert was no warmer than a coolday back on Earth. But the sun, pounding down through the thin airdehydrated you and did funny things to your brain. And if you stood upunder that, the glittering sand drove you blind.
"We might as well stay here for the night," he said. "It's as good aplace as any."
"How much water is there left?" she asked.
"There's a quart in the other flask," he said. He knew there was hardlya pint, but if he had said so, she wouldn't take any more.
She leaned back against the rock, and squinted at the shimmeringwasteland. "Do you think Brainard really saw a ship?" she asked.
"Of course he did. Brainard wouldn't lie about a thing like that."
"How could he see a ship on the ground when we were falling at sixhundred miles an hour?"
"He could see the sun flash on the metal," Carl said.
She pushed the grayed curls back from her cheek. "But if there was aship we should have found it by now."
"Not necessarily," Carl said. "We haven't been traveling very fast."
The girl looked at her hand that was covered with gray dust from herhair. "I'm a mess," she said.
"You ought to try and sleep a little," Carl said. "You were taking careof Brainard all last night."
"No, I'm not sleepy."
Carl sat there watching her. In a few minutes he saw her eyes close andher head droop forward on her knees. She did not wake up when he laidher down at the back of the cave and shoved his jacket under her head.
When the sun sank and the chill began to make him shiver, Carl wentoutside to look for fuel. As usual there were no plants, not even ablade of dried grass, but in the face of a nearby cliff he foundagain a ledge of coal. At least, he thought, the desert furnishes usone thing, and it keeps us from turning to ice in the night.
He carried back an armful, and followed the procedure of the nightbefore, breaking the lumps into little pieces, and grinding a few ofthem into a black powder that would burst into flame with a second shotfrom the heat gun.
When the fire was going, he gathered enough coal