While the rest of us see to all the final preparations before leaving, Johnny contacts the Earth, alerting them to the fact that we will be taking off in about an hour. He tells them he will try to keep the same connection while flying that he had last night and will keep our televising set on also, in hopes they can see for themselves to at least a small degree what the Moon surface looks like. All weather conditions are fine. In fact, the weather has been perfect for flying ever since we arrived here. Chapter VI THE TERMINAL CITY After rising into the air, Bob circled our field while Johnny called the Earth. Contact has been made and Johnny is describing our trip to the people on Earth, giving them a bird's-eye view of the Moon as we fly over it. "We are straightening out in the same direction we took on our first flight from here. We have crossed the brush-forest and are heading up the valley. The little fishing lake is like a large mirror reflecting skyward. Our friends in the village waved in greeting to us as we flew over their homes towards the mountain range lying a short distance beyond. Extending from about half way up these mountains into the snowclad peaks is a heavy growth of timber. It looks as if there could be rather large trees growing here instead of the brush growth of the forest in the warmer section." "We have flown five hundred miles straight north from the light side into the dark side, flying over the top of the Moon, as it were. The mountains have grown constantly higher and more rugged the deeper we penetrated into the dark area, until Bob had to rise to forty thousand feet for safe flying." "A deep valley lies below us, flanked on either side by ridges of snowcapped mountains towering to an elevation of thirty-two thousand feet. These peaks are bleak and uninviting, yet could easily be a challenge to the adventurous mountain climber, much like the Himalayan Mountains of Earth. We have been unable to sight villages or settlements of any kind for a long time now and the valley below gives us the feeling of unexplored territory, as though no man had yet penetrated its vastness." "Bob has turned slightly East now for in the distance he has noticed something bright deep down below, as though a lake of water might be hidden somewhere there in that heavy growth of timber and chaparral. Through our glasses we make sure it is water but we will have to lower a little into the valley to learn more about it. It is a wide, roaring river flowing from the north and filled with many heavy rapids. It seems to disappear right into the Moon earth for we saw no trace of it farther down in the valley."