The boys started to protest but their father grinned. "Our mistress' voice, Boys. And she's right, I was trying too much. We're not in that big a hurry. Jon, you and Jak go make a box to hold our specimen." They left him, and in moments he was asleep from exhaustion. In the storeroom, Jon found some pieces of one-inch oak, and Jak and he made up their box, finishing just as their mother called them to dinner. It was a six-inch cube, sturdily fastened with plenty of screws; strong enough to hold solid osmium. The lead foil was carefully fitted into the interior, and was now twelve layers thick--three-eighths of an inch. "That ought to do it," Jak said, and Jon agreed. "Let's go out and fill it after we eat." Jak was all eagerness. Jon shook his head. "Not unless Pop says to. Now that he's awake, I just don't like to make decisions." Jak grinned. "You're right, of course. Guess we got too big-headed, having to do things ourselves while he was unconscious." "Yes, we're still pretty inexperienced, and I'm glad we don't have to figure things out now." "Still, we can't go back to depending too much on him," Jak said thoughtfully. "That way, we'll never get the habit of thinking for ourselves, and deciding--and that would be bad. But about this, I agree fully," he added quickly as he saw his brother about to protest. "Even if I don't know much about it, I can see that this stuff's dangerous to monkey with." Their father awakened later, much refreshed by his nap. After the boys had explained and exhibited their new box, he agreed it would be all right for them to go out and get a single piece of the metal. "Leave it in the lock, though," he added. "Then, in the morning, maybe I'll feel like helping Jon study and experiment with it." The two boys ran to get into their suits, and soon were outside, carrying their lead-lined box. They jumped into the large cache box after lifting off the lid, and took the top from the inner one. They set the carrier beside it, then ran back to the ship. With the "distant hands," Jon flipped a nugget into the small box, and set it aside on the sand. Using the same servo-mechanism, he closed both covers. Then he brought the little box back and deposited it on the floor of the lock. The two boys took off their suits and hung them in the wall closet, then went into the control room. "You were right, Pop. We sure couldn't have handled the big box at all." Jon grinned, still panting. "Even the little one is really heavy with just one nugget in it." His father grinned back. "I had an idea, but thought I'd let you learn the hard way. Now maybe you'll remember it longer." "Anyway, we got it in the lock, and tomorrow, if you feel up to it, we can start experimenting." "Just how big are the pellets?" "A little over half the size of our treated-copper ones," Jon told him. "We'll have to cut it before we try working with it."