That day, the test had consisted of the "puncturing" of the capsule. At a given signal, the pressure inside it had been reduced to that of fifty miles above the Earth's surface--in other words, to zero--by pumping out the air inside it. Richardson, the ace of the astronauts, had been chosen for this important test. It had gone well. With the other scientists at their dials, Snow, seated at the big console of literally dozens of dials, the only one to be connected with Richardson by sound and speech, had given the signal. In a minute, the capsule had become a vacuum fifty miles above the surface of the Earth, outside its envelope of atmosphere. Richardson's voice, reading his instruments, acknowledging Snow's instructions, answering his questions, had come through as normal and as calm as ever. Snow had felt a rising excitement as the test proceeded. And then, without warning, the thing had happened. Richardson's voice had stopped in the middle of an instrument reading, as if it had suddenly been cut off. A few seconds later, it had resumed. But when it did so, the voice was uttering a stream of unintelligible sounds in a low, lilting chant. Snow had listened incredulously for perhaps thirty seconds, at the end of which the sounds had suddenly ceased. Immediately, Snow had given instructions for the normal pressure inside the capsule to be restored. Almost as he had done so, Richardson's voice, once again normal, had resumed the reading of the instruments, taking up from where it had left off a minute before. Acting on a sudden impulse. Snow had decided to say nothing over the wire to Richardson at the time. He had continued his conversation with the astronaut, telling him they were "bringing him down" and asking the usual questions until the test ended. * * * * * When, with the others, he had stood around watching while Richardson was helped out of his spacesuit, he had carefully watched their faces, looking for some sign of doubt or puzzlement. But he saw none. On the contrary, they all seemed triumphantly satisfied. Even Richardson had shown no sign that anything unusual had occurred. He had been his usual cheerful self, seeming not even slightly fatigued by the long test.