Dahl and Eberlein stood in the outer port of the relief ship, staring back at the research bunker. It was half hidden in the shadows of a rocky overhang that protected it from meteorites. "They kidded him a lot this morning," Dahl said. "They said he had found a home on the Moon." "If we had stayed an hour or so more, he might have changed his mind and left, after all," Eberlein mused, his face a thoughtful mask behind his air helmet. "I offered him money," Dahl said painfully. "I was a coward and I offered him money to stay in my place." His face was bitter and full of disgust for himself. Eberlein turned to him quickly and automatically told him the right thing. "We're all cowards once in a while," he said earnestly. "But your offer of money had nothing to do with his staying. He stayed because he had to stay, because we made him stay." "I don't understand," Dahl said. "Chapman had a lot to go home for. He was engaged to be married." Dahl winced. "We got her to write him a letter breaking it off. We knew it meant that he lost one of his main reasons for wanting to go back. I think, perhaps, that he still would have left if we had stayed and argued him into going. But we left before he could change his mind." "That--was a lousy thing to do!" "We had no choice. We didn't use it except as a last resort." "I don't know of any girl who would have done such a thing, no matter what your reasons, if she was in love with a guy like Chapman," Dahl said. "There was only one who would have," Eberlein agreed. "Ginny Dixon. She understood what we were trying to tell her. She had to; her brother had died up here." "Why was Chapman so important?" Dahl burst out. "What could he have done that I couldn't have done--would have done if I had had any guts?" "Perhaps you could have," Eberlein said. "But I doubt it. I don't think there were many men who could have. And we couldn't take the chance. Chapman knows how to live on the Moon. He's like a trapper who's spent all his time in the forests and knows it like the palm of his hand. He never makes mistakes, he never fails to check things. And he isn't a scientist. He would never become so preoccupied with research that he'd fail to make checks. And he can watch out for those who do make mistakes. Ginny understood that all too well." "How did you know all this about Chapman?" Dahl asked. "The men in the First told us some of it. And we had our own observer with you here. Bening kept us pretty well informed." * * * * * Eberlein stared at the bunker thoughtfully. "It costs a lot of money to send ships up here and establish a colony. It will cost a lot to expand it. And with that kind of investment, you don't take chances. You have to have the best men for the job. You get them even if they don't want to do it." He gestured at the small, blotchy globe of blue and green that was the Earth, riding high in the black sky.