Because of the light moon gravity, the boys found that they could move easily in spite of the deep dust and of the equipment strapped to their backs. The equipment took up as much room as it would have on earth, but here it weighed only one sixth of its earth weight and so was not much of a burden. In a short while they were out of sight of the flier. They had mounted a low-lying hill and crossed down the other side. It would still be a long time before they got out of the giant crater in which the flier had landed, but by the time they did get out they would be well along toward their destination. “We seem to be making good time, Patch,” Garry said over his helmet radio. “Yeah,” Patch replied. “It’s so much easier walking on the moon than it is on the earth, once you get the hang of it.” “Just think, Patch. Captain Eaton really was going to try to adopt us,” Garry said. “And all the time we thought he didn’t care enough.” “He’s one in a million, Garry. He would have been the grandest father a guy could ever have.” “What do you mean he _would_ have?” Garry protested. “He _will_ be our father. We’re going to _save_ him, Patch. We’re going to save all of them.” “I want to save them too,” Patch said earnestly. “I’d sure hate for us to make it and them not to.” “Maybe we shouldn’t talk so much,” Garry advised. “It uses up more oxygen, and I don’t think we have a surplus of it.” They slogged silently through the gray dust in the bouncy, light-footed motion that they had become accustomed to by now. Every once in a while Garry would glance about him at the forbidding countryside of this dead world. Sight of the desolation chilled his soul. He wondered at first why this was so. Then he supposed that it must be because there was so much absolute _deadness_ all about. For nothing could live in the numbing cold and the boiling-hot temperatures that came to this landscape periodically. No, he and Patch were the only living creatures from one horizon to the other, and this fact was enough to give anyone the shivers. Finally Garry broke the long silence. “Patch, do you notice we’re able to move along easier now?” he asked. “It’s because the dust is thinning out, isn’t it?” Patch replied. “But I see the rocky country up ahead that the captain was telling us about.” “Yes,” Garry said, “and from the way he talked, it’s going to be plenty rugged getting through there.” They increased their speed, now that the going was easier.