Laughlin had then been gone at least seven hours. Longer trips than that had been made before--but not by either man alone. Nor were _any_ trips--prior to this one--made singly by either partner without advance arrangements. If one of them went out alone, the other was required, by operating procedures established beforehand, to stand by and maintain continuous radio contact. When they left ship together, the same continuous radio contact was maintained, one-way, and automatically taped on board the ship. Both sand cats, the helicopter, and the small plane were equipped with radio transmitters that operated automatically, sending signal directions, as long as the vehicle was in operation. There was no switchoff on the devices, and there was a secondary system designed to cut in if the primary were damaged in any way. No direction signals had been recorded from Laughlin’s cat at any time. Wendt’s immediate reaction, written before his first search, “I do not believe he plans to return,” had appeared filled with sinister import when the log was first examined. On consideration, the quick conclusion seemed a natural one, in view of Doug’s failure to inform Johnny of his trip plans, or to file a route plan, plus the absence of any direction signals from the cat (which pointed toward deliberate dismantling of the automatic equipment), and, finally, Johnny’s discovery of the missing pages in the log book. The next entry, made several hours later, debated the advisability of further search. The first effort had turned up no trail of any kind. The rule against simultaneous departures from line-of-sight had to be considered. Everything pointed to one extreme likelihood that Laughlin’s departure had been planned and purposeful, and that no amount of searching would be rewarded. Nevertheless, Johnny continued to search for five more days, two or three flights a day, until the search pattern was finished, the flight coordinates adding up to a circle whose radius represented a narrow margin of safety above the flight limits imposed for one-man trips. The final entry on the search was brief: “I do not believe there is a possibility that Laughlin is still alive. He did not take any extra oxygen cylinders with him. At minimum usage, the two standard tanks in the cat, if full when he started, would have been stretched to 95 hours. He has now been gone from the ship for at least 127 hours. I have seen no sign of him, or of any ship’s equipment, or of any trail he might have left, on any flight since the second one.” There were no further entries except for routine daily temperature and atmosphere reading, until the one that gave the calculations for takeoff and homeward orbit. Doug Laughlin’s name was not mentioned again, nor was any reference to him made. No opinion was volunteered as to why he should have left the ship. * * * * * They went back to Johnny again. “I don’t know,” he kept saying.