Everything is in order, the motors are warmed up and we are making a radar contact with the Earth telling them we are about ready to take off on our way home. The Martonians, the two chieftains, and all the people gathered here bid us farewell. These people are our friends and we are going to miss them with their joy and their way of living. At last we are moving for the air. As we gain altitude and look down towards our friends on the ground we see that the Martonian ship is rising too. It is faster than we are. We are circling over this territory and straightening out to be headed for the Earth. The Martonian ship is alongside of us. At three thousand feet up the Martonian ship is still with us travelling towards the Earth. We are ten thousand miles from the Moon towards the Earth. The Martonian ship has escorted us thus far but it is now turning around and going back. We are encountering some storm but not as bad as it was when we came in. We are now thirty thousand miles out. Things are no different than they were when coming in. We are fifty thousand miles out, now seventy thousand miles, just ten thousand miles away from the gap. At seventy-two thousand miles we are encountering trouble, a very heavy meteoric shower. Our ship is out of control, at least we think it is for it seems to be zig-zagging between these meteors. There is one awfully big one headed towards us, if it hits us we are done for. We just missed it by going up over it and Bob said he had nothing to do with throwing the ship up and nothing to do with the zig-zagging. We can't figure it out and yet the ship is not in danger, as we can detect it. We are now entering the gap. It may save us. We got through that shower all right, but how, we don't know. Something strange has taken place which we can't figure out. After twenty thousand miles of the gap, we are leaving it. Through this neutral zone we have encountered pretty much the same conditions as we did coming to the Moon. Now we are one hundred ten thousand miles away from the Moon and encountering more meteors. Our ship is missing them or they are missing us but there are more meteors now than we had seen on the way to the Moon. Also our ship is beginning to feel the gravitational pull towards the Earth. Our instruments are functioning perfectly. Here is a shower of big meteors coming right for us. If they strike us we are done for. Bob doesn't know what to do, but the ship is taking a dip, a four thousand foot dip and just passed beneath the meteors. The ship is now rising to where we were. That was really a close call that time. We are travelling smoothly now, very few meteors and they are at a great distance. We are one hundred eighty thousand miles out from the Moon. Our contact with the Earth's radar has been broken each time we zig-zagged past, over or under the meteors, so the Earth lost track of us. Right now we are unable to contact them again. They surely realize we are having trouble.