At any rate, the incident was closed, as no one could be found who might possibly have been an accomplice. Minor damage caused by the cloud of meteorites was repaired, and the three ships swung in close together, heading for the satellite which they were commissioned to destroy. The men spent as much time as they could in their bunks, for there was hard dangerous work ahead of them. Huge cartridges had to be filled with _hexoxen_, caps of Europium placed on top, and adjustments made so that, after a certain time had elapsed, the catalyst would come into contact with the _hexoxen_, causing a reaction to take place which would continue almost as long as there was solid material present to be vaporized. One slip of tired hands, one miscalculation and many men, perhaps the entire party, would suffer a terrible fate. Holden was busy with one of the latest and best maps of the moon, looking for places where landing could be made, and charting the spots where the cartridges would be buried. The exact time for which every charge was to be set had to be worked out in advance. CHAPTER III A Sudden Encounter The map of the moon was not as complete as it could have been, either. No particular interest had been taken in our satellite since the first exploratory expeditions nearly fifty years before, when it had been determined that the moon was of no value to Earthmen, either as an outpost for colonization or a station for the production of power from the sun's rays. Jack did the best he could, however, and the little dots he placed on the map were close enough together to assure complete vaporization of the solid material in less than the allotted time. At the end of the second day out, by earth-time, the dead satellite loomed immense, only five thousand miles ahead. Holden was in the pilot house when Edwards began turning on the deceleration tubes. "I flashed your message to the other ships," he said, as his quick fingers touched the buttons which sent messages to the tube-room, "telling them to stand by and land with us. I understand that the plan is to use these ships to travel over the surface of the moon, making landings in such positions that expeditions can be sent out in four directions to plant cartridges. That will certainly give us plenty of time, if nothing goes wrong." "I don't see what could go wrong," replied Holden, "since that madman is out of the way." Eagerly he watched the dead, dust-covered surface approach, marveling at the huge craters and precipitous peaks. In two hours the five thousand miles had been reduced to less than that many yards, and in a few more minutes the three great ships were settling softly on the smooth surface of the plain at the foot of Mount Julian. Space suits were rapidly donned, the air-locks set in operation, and the men hastily began unloading the first four charges of _hexoxen_ and Europium. Holden called a meeting of the ship commanders in the pilot room of the _San Francisco_.