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Three weeks might be too long. A week might be too long. An atom war could be all over in a day."
"Well, let's ask our pal if he knows when they expect to strike, then," Ross offered.
Morrie shook his head and stopped Art from doing so. "Useless. We'll never get a chance to build a
transmitter. They'll be swarming over this crater like reporters around a murder trial. Look -- they'll be
here any minute. Don't you think they'll miss this rocket?"
"Oh, my gosh!" It was Art. Ross added, "What time is it, Doc?"
To their complete amazement it was only forty minutes from the time the Galileo had been
bombed. It had seemed like a full day.
It cheered them up a little but not much. The prisoner had admitted that the rocket they were in was
the only utility, short-jump job. And the Nazi space ship- the Wotan, he termed it -would hardly be used
for search. Perhaps they had a few relatively free hours.
"But I still don't see it," Cargraves admitted. "Two guns and two pistols -- four of us. The odds are
too long -- and we can't afford to lose. I know you sports aren't afraid to die, but we've got to win."
"Why," inquired Ross, "does it have to be rifles?"
"What else?"
"This crate bombed us. I'll bet it carries more than one bomb."
Cargraves looked startled, then turning to the prisoner, spoke rapidly in German. The prisoner gave
a short reply. Cargraves nodded and said, "Morrie, do you think you could fly this clunker?"
"I could sure make a stab at it."
"Okay. You are it. We'll make Joe Masterrace here take it off, with a gun in his ribs, and you'll have
to feel her out. You won't get but one chance and no practice. Now let's take a look at the bomb
controls."
The bomb controls were simple. There was no bombsight, as such. The pilot drove the ship on a
straight diving course and kicked it out just before his blast upwards. There was a gadget to expel the
bomb free of the ship; it continued on the ship's previous trajectory. Having doped it out, they checked
with the Nazi pilot who gave them the same answers they had read in the mechanism.
There were two pilot seats and two passenger seats, directly behind the pilot seats. Morrie took one
pilot seat; the Nazi the other. Ross sat behind Morrie, while Cargraves sat with Art in his lap, one belt
around both. This squeezed Art up close to the back of the Nazi's chair, which was good, for Art reached
around and held a gun in the Nazi's side.
"All set, Morrie?"
"All set. I make one pass to get my bearings and locate the mouth of their hideaway. Then I come
back and give `em the works."
"Right. Try not to hit their rocket ship, if you can. it would be nice to go home. Blast off! Achtung!
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Aufstieg!"
The avengers raised ground.
"How is it going?" Cargraves shouted a few moments later. "Okay!" Morrie answered, raising his
voice to cut through the roar. "I could fly her down a chimney. There's the hill ahead, I think -- there!"
The silvery shape of the Wotan near the hill they were shooting towards put a stop to any doubts. It
appeared to be a natural upthrust of rock, quite different from the craters, and lay by itself a few miles
out in one of the 'seas'.
They were past it and Morrie was turning, blasting heavily to kill his momentum, and pressing
them hard into their seats. Art fought to steady the revolver without firing it.
Morrie was headed back on his bombing run, coming in high for his dive. Cargraves wondered if
Morrie had actually seen the air lock of the underground base; he himself had had no glimpse of it.
There was no time left to wonder. Morrie was diving; they were crushed against the pads as he
fought a moment later to recover from the dive, kicking her up and blasting. They hung for a second and
Cargraves thought that Morrie had played it too fine in his anxiety to get in a perfect shot; he braced
himself for the crash.
Then they were up. When he had altitude, Morric kicked her over again, letting his jet die. They
dropped, view port down, with the ground staring at them.
They could see the splash of dust and sand still rising. Suddenly there was a whoosh from the
middle of it, a mighty blast of air, bits of debris, and more sand. It cleared at once in the vacuum of that
plain, and they saw the open wound, a black hole leading downward.
He had blown out the air lock with a bull's-eye.
Morrie put her down to Cargraves' plan, behind the Wotan and well away from the hole. "Okay,
Doc!"
"Good. Now let's run over the plan -- I don't want any slipup. Ross comes with me. You and Art
stay with the jeep. We will look over the Wotan first, then scout out the base. If we are gone longer than
thirty minutes, you must assume that we are dead or captured. No matter what happens, under no
circumstances whatever are you to leave this rocket. If any one comes toward you, blast off. Don't even
let us come near you unless we are by ourselves. Blast off. You've got one more bomb -- you know what
to do with it."
Morrie nodded. "Bomb the Wotan. I hate to do that." He stared wistfully at the big ship, their one
chain to the earth.
"But you've got to. You and Art have got to run for it, then, and get back to the Dog House and hole
up. It'll be your business, Art, to manage somehow or other to throw together a set that can get a
message back to earth. That's your only business, both of you. Under no circumstances are you to come
back here looking for Ross and me. If you stay holed up, they may not find you for weeks -- and that
will give you your chance, the earth's chance. Agreed?"
Morrie hesitated. "Suppose we get a message through to earth. How about it then?"
Cargraves thought for a moment, then replied, "We can't stand here jawing -- there's work to be
done. If you get a message through with a reply that makes quite clear that they believe you and are
getting busy, then you are on your own. But I advise you not to take any long chances. If we aren't back
here in thirty minutes, you probably can't help us." He paused for a moment and decided to add one
more thing -- the boy's personal loyalty had made him doubtful about one point. "You know, don't you,
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