"Only a skeleton crew," he explained. "Just the relief pilot and the engineers and a man or two in the galley, and I trust 'em all. But you can't be too careful. "The Commander," he concluded, "is gettin' to be more an emperor than a Commander, and somethin's got to be done. Discipline we must have, 'tis true; but this kotowin' to His Royal Highness and all o' that--devil a bit do I like it! If only you could show him up, Mr. Bullard--but of course you can't." "I'm not so sure," Chet responded. "What I told the big boss wasn't all bluff. Haldgren _did_ go out, five years ago this month. We have the record of a Crescent liner's captain who saw Haldgren's little ship shoot through the R.A. and go on out as if it were going somewhere. And now we have these flashes! "Do you see what that means, Spud? An SOS! Nobody but an Earth-man would send that, and we wouldn't do it now. We would just press the lever of our emergency-call, and every receiver within a thousand miles would pick up the scream of it. "But we've had this Dunston Emergency Transmitter less than four years. Haldgren knew only the old S O S. And remember this: three dots, three dashes and three dots don't just happen. They showed up on the Moon. They were repeated the next night. _Somebody sent them!_ Who was it?" * * * * * And Pilot O'Malley gave the only obvious answer: "There's only yourself and Mr. Harkness and Pilot Haldgren that could have got there. 'Twas Haldgren, of course! What a pity that you can't go; 'tis likely the poor bhoy needs help." "Five years!" mused Chet. "Five long years since he left! He must have landed safely--and then what? After five years comes a signal and that signal a call for help that no pilot worthy the name would disregard.... "Where are we bound?" he demanded abruptly. "Rooshia," said O'Malley. "I disremember the name--'tis on my orders--but I know it's a long way up north." "Spud," said Chet, "you're a rotten pilot; you're one of the worst I ever knew. Careless--that's your worst fault--and if anybody doubts that they'll believe it after this trip. For, Spud, if you're any friend of mine, and I know you are, you're going to lose your bearings, and kick this old sky-hog a long way beyond that factory she is bound for. And you're going to set me down in a God-forsaken spot in the arctic where I'm pretty sure I'll find a ship waiting for me. "And, if you just stick around for a while after that, you will see me take off for the Moon. Then, if Haldgren is there--" Chet failed to finish the sentence; he was staring through a rear lookout, where, over the arc of the Earth's horizon, could be seen a thin crescent Moon; about it drifting clouds made a halo.