Finally, Isaac broke the solemn quiet: “It won’t be the same with good old Ben gone. He was a smart, brave guy. I’d like to have an ounce of all the scientific and mechanical knowledge he had.” They had been so concerned over Ben’s fate that they had almost overlooked the fact that the rocky wilderness of the moon was staring them in the face; that in a few moments the flier would be either touching down on her surface or crashing along with the _Carefree_ and Ben, her only human occupant. Mac was guiding the craft into a slowly descending spiral. This would give the flier’s braking rockets time to reduce speed to safe level for the touchdown. The _Carefree_ was not in sight, although Garry searched the starry sky through the plastic walls of the flier. He was glad he could not find her. He would not have liked to see her crash. Down below, Garry could see the huge dish of a giant crater. It was within this area that Mac was circling. As if anticipating Garry’s question, Mac explained: “Ben suggested that we try landing on the floor of this crater, which is called Hornfield. It was discovered by a lunar explorer in 1983. It is supposed to be covered by several inches of pumice dust, and that may help to break our fall if we make a bad touchdown.” From high up, the walls of the crater did not appear very impressive, but as the flier spiraled lower, they looked like lofty battlements of ancient castles. As they dipped lower still, Garry watched those grim crater walls close in around the small space craft. Spread out below was the ocean of gray dust that carpeted the crater floor. Part way up, above the horizon, was seen the distant globe of earth. It cast ghostly greenish shadows around the walls, pits, and rock formations. This was the two-week period of night on Luna, and the temperature down there, in a nearly airless atmosphere, Garry knew, was more than two hundred degrees below zero. “Everyone make sure his restraining belts are tight,” Mac called. “We’re about to touchdown.” The ground rushed up to meet them, as Garry felt himself tipped forward in his seat. The belly of the little flier skimmed the ocean of dust, sending it up in a giant cloud along both sides of the craft. The flier continued to plow along through the pumice until friction finally brought it to a halt. It was strange being still again, Garry thought. Another strange feeling was the gravity pull of the moon, which he knew to be only one sixth as strong as that of earth. “Is everybody all right?” Captain Eaton asked. No one said that he _wasn’t_ all right. Garry and Patch began unfastening their restraining belts, as did the others. Captain Eaton was the first to his feet. He moved over to the window with a strange floating sort of step owing to his reduced moon weight. Then he looked out. “Where are we, Mac?” he asked. “Inside the Hornfield crater,” Mac answered.