Captain Bonnet checked his casualties. Of his crew of sixty, three were dead and twelve paralyzed by the poisoned darts the Venusians used. The other forty-five were half dead from exhaustion. Three days of fighting was about all any man could stand. Captain Bonnet's men had been in a more or less exposed position during the first part of the battle and their casualties had been heavy while they tried to prevent _The Piece of Sky's_ destruction. But probably ten percent of the fifteen hundred men who manned Outpost 53 were out of the action now, the majority of them suffering temporary paralysis from dart poison. The captain realized that the attack would continue until the Venusians captured the post. The radio power house had been destroyed first of all. Then the space ship had been wrecked. The outpost was cut off from communication with the earth. Reinforcements who could attack the Venusians from above and disperse them would not be due for two months. If Outpost 53 lasted three weeks, it would mean fighting to the last man. Lieutenant Riley reached into his bag between coughs of the Amorg gun. He brought out a slender bottle and pulled the cork. He pressed the bottle into Captain Bonnet's hand. "Martian Zingo," the lieutenant said. "A friend of mine gave it to me for a little service in the Canal campaign on Mars. I've been saving it for a special occasion and it looks like this is it. Here's to our short and merry lives, Captain!" * * * * * Night brought some relief, although the poisoned darts still rained on the outpost and the ground was lighted with flashes of the atom guns. Major Rogers, his face drawn with weariness, stomped to the spacemen's battery. "We've got to get a man through to earth, Captain," the major said. "Can't your ship be fixed?" [Illustration: _"We've got to get a ship through to earth, Captain," the Major said. "Can't your ship be fixed?" The Captain shook his head slowly._] The captain shook his head. "No, sir." "Doesn't your ship carry a lifeboat?" "It does, but you couldn't make the earth in that--and survive. The lifeboat carries just enough fuel to land on a planet. That fuel would be used on the takeoff." "But if you got off Venus and aimed the boat toward the earth, nothing would keep it from getting there, would it?" "No, I suppose not, sir." "Then we've got to do it. Yes, yes, I know. It's suicide. But it's suicide not to try it. We simply must get a message through to the earth. We'll ask for volunteers." "No need of that, Major," the captain said. "I'll make the trip." "One man couldn't do it," broke in Lieutenant Riley. "I'm going along." "You know what it means?" the captain asked his friend.