The Planet Mappers E. EVERETT EVANS DODD, MEAD & COMPANY NEW YORK, 1955 Copyright 1955 By E. Everett Evans All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-5211 Printed in the United States of America By The Cornwall Press, Inc., Cornwall, N. Y. [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] _Books by E. Everett Evans_ MAN OF MANY MINDS ALIEN MINDS THE PLANET MAPPERS _To my boys-- Carl, Dave, Tommy, Billy, Edward, Freddy_ The characters and situations in this book are wholly fictional and imaginative: they do not portray and are not intended to portray any actual persons or parties._ THE PLANET MAPPERS 1 As he heard that dread yet telltale _spang_ against the hull of their spaceboat, young Jon Carver dropped his reelbook and sprang to his feet. His eyes looked swiftly to help his ears trace the sudden _hiss_ he knew was their precious air escaping. In the back of his mind he heard the sudden grunt his father made, the sound of a falling body, his mother's frightened scream, and his brother's "What's wrong?" But he did not stop his own lanky, gangling body in its leap toward the outer bulkhead. And as he jumped, he pulled his handkerchief from his hip pocket. "Leaping tuna! If that isn't fixed quick, we'll lose our air," was his near-panicked thought. "We won't be able to get where we're going. Be lucky if we come out of it alive!" So, guided by the whistling, escaping air, Jon found the hole, nearly half an inch in diameter. Into it he wadded the corner of the cloth as best he could. The outward loss of their precious air slackened, although there was still some leakage he could not stop this way. He jumped to the nearest of the many emergency repair kits scattered about the ship. From it he grabbed a metal patch and an electric torch. Swiftly he plugged the latter into a wall socket. With it he quickly welded the patch into place, after pulling--with considerable difficulty--his handkerchief from the hole. "It'll do for now," he decided, after carefully examining his work and listening closely to make sure there was no more whistling-out of air. "But we'll have to go outside and really fill in and weld-plug that hole in the hull, but quick."