Garry stole a look at the big green jewel of earth afloat in the black sea of space, for it alone seemed to lend an air of friendliness and security to the otherwise lonely, sinister surroundings. The walls of Hornfield Crater about them were jagged as sharks’ teeth as they reached up into the darkness. The stars seemed to Garry like sparkling snowflakes dusted across the entire vault of the sky. The nebulae were like misty clouds, and there was the long arch of a great comet crossing just above the horizon and standing out remarkably because of its being so different from everything else in the whole visible sweep of the heavens. After a few hours of steady hiking, Patch suggested that they take a short break to rest and eat. Garry was ready for the same. Garry checked their map and compared the markings on it to their true surroundings. “We seem to be still on course, Patch,” he said. By now they had moved up on a higher plateau within the crater, and the dust had thinned so that solid rock could be felt underfoot. But not far beyond lay the wilderness of rock they had seen earlier at a distance. How huge and forbidding the region looked! Garry stopped walking and plopped down in his tracks, heaving a sigh. Patch sat down beside him. Garry took tubes of liquid food and a couple of water bottles from the pack he carried. He offered Patch his share and took some for himself. Each boy unscrewed a plate that covered the mouth of his helmet. Behind this was a rubber disk with a self-sealing opening in the middle of it. All the boys had to do was thrust the tubes of food and water through these openings and take them between their lips. By squeezing the tubes, they forced the contents into their mouths. “Got a napkin?” Patch joked, when they were through. “I’d like to wipe my mouth.” “Sorry,” Garry answered, “but they haven’t figured out a way to do that yet.” Patch climbed to his feet, screwing his outer mouthplate back on. “Well, that wasn’t exactly like carving into a steak, but I guess it’ll do until we can get something better,” he said. They started out again, and soon approached the forbidding rocky region they had dreaded. The ground was rough and uneven. Garry looked ahead, and it was like staring into the mouth of a vast cavern. “We’ve got to be careful, Patch,” Garry warned, as he slowed down and held back his friend. “There may be bad crevasses across our path, and they could be the end of us if we should fall in.” Garry took the responsibility of going first. Patch was right behind, holding on to a strap on Garry’s suit. It was like going into a dark underworld thriving with all kinds of unknown dangers. Although he was following very closely, Patch could barely see Garry’s outline ahead of him. Garry would carefully slide one foot ahead of him to be sure he had solid ground underfoot.