Rip watched his dosimeter climb steadily as the radiation dosage mounted. Then he took the landing boat to the _Scorpius_, talked the problem over with the ship’s medical department and arranged for his men to take injections that would keep them from coming down with radiation sickness. They left the asteroid belt far behind, and passed within ten thousand miles of Mars. The _Scorpius_ sent its entire complement of snapper-boats to the asteroid for protection, in case Consops made another try, then flamed off to Marsport to put in new supplies to replace those damaged when Rip had forced sudden and disastrous acceleration. The asteroid had reached earth’s orbit before the cruiser returned. Of course, earth was on the other side of the sun. Rip ordered a survey and found the best place on the dark side to make a new base. The Planeteers cut out a cave with the torch, lined it with nuclite, and moved in their supplies. It would be their permanent base to the end of the trip. The sun was very hot now. On the sunny side of the asteroid the temperature had soared far past the boiling point of water. But on the dark side, Rip measured temperatures close to absolute zero. When the _Scorpius_ returned he arranged with Commander O’Brine for the Planeteers to take turns going to the cruiser for showers and decent meals. The asteroid approached the orbit of Venus, but the bright planet was some distance away, at its greatest elongation to the east of the sun. Mercury, however, loomed larger and larger. They would pass close to the hot planet. O’Brine recalled Rip to the _Scorpius_ and handed him a message. ASTEROID NOW WITHIN PROTECTION REACH OF MERCURY AND TERRA BASES. YOUR ESCORT NO LONGER REQUIRED. PROCEED IMMEDIATELY TITAN, TAKE ON CARGO AND PERSONNEL. The commander sighed. "Looks like I’ll never get to earth long enough to see my family." Rip sympathized. "Tough, sir. Perhaps the cargo from Titan will be scheduled for Terra." "That’s what I hope," O’Brine agreed. "Well, here’s where we part. Is there anything you need?" Rip made a mental check on supplies. He had more than enough. "The only thing we need is a long-range communicator, sir. If you’re leaving, we’ll have no way to contact the planet bases." "I’ll see that you get one." The Irishman thrust out his hand. "Stay out of high vack, Foster. Too bad you didn’t join us instead of the Planeteers. I might have made a decent officer out of you." Rip grinned. "That’s a real compliment, sir. I might return it by saying I’d be glad to have you as a Planeteer corporal any time." O’Brine chuckled. "All right. Let’s declare a truce, Planeteer. We’ll meet again. Space isn’t very big." A short time later Rip stood in front of his asteroid base and watched the great cruiser drive into space. A short distance away a snapper-boat was lashed to the landing boat. O’Brine had insisted on leaving it, with a word of warning.