The phone went dead. Jim hung up slowly and went back to the living room where Mary sat in tense, white fear. She had heard Jim's side of the conversation. She guessed what Allan had said. "It's no use," said Jim. "Don't try to reach him. He'll hate you forever." * * * * * It was no use to run, but they ran anyway. This was what Sam meant when he said he knew what Jim was going to do. Jim Cochran was completely blackballed in his own profession. As he said, he couldn't have gotten a job stirring with a wooden paddle in a soap factory. Tom Banning and his family went with them. They went as far north as they could and finally stopped running on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. They pooled their funds and bought some wheat land and some cattle stock and tried to stop thinking beyond the end of each day. They were grateful for the absence of television, but they kept a radio. Through it, they learned when the Apollo finally took off with its three-man crew. They followed its two and a half day journey through space and heard the voice of Captain Allan Wright announce they were in lunar orbit. A few hours later the landing capsule was disengaged from the spaceship and Captain Wright and William Chambers rode it down. Their voices were heard in exultation as they announced their first steps on the surface of the moon. It was night in northern Canada when the landing was made. Jim and Sam and Tom and their families were outside watching the full moon, trying to imagine how it was up there. From the house they heard the radio relaying the voices of the astronauts. The voices were relayed to earth through the more powerful transmitter of the orbiting Apollo, but as the spaceship circled the moon the voices of the men on the surface were lost. Then they returned once more as the ship came over their horizon. For five orbits their voices came and went as they described their sensations and exulted in the first minutes of their achievement. Then, on the sixth orbit, there were no voices. There was only the sudden, shrill cry of the third crewman, Don Anderson, who manned the orbiting ship. "Allan! Bill! Apollo to capsule: Come in, please. Bill--where are you--I can't even see your capsule. I'm passing right over the spot. Apollo to Base: I can't locate the capsule through the telescope. It looks like a big crevasse right where the capsule was, but it wasn't there before. Allan--Bill--Come in! Come in!" Jim heard the sudden sob that shook Mary. He put his arm about her shoulders and led her into the house. Don Anderson remained in lunar orbit for two more days. Then he was ordered home. He landed safely.