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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40961 ***
+
+                             Luna Escapade
+
+                            _by H. B. Fyfe_
+
+[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Orbit volume 1 number
+2, 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+[Sidenote: _SHE WAS JUST A CRAZY BRAT--OR WAS SHE?_]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+With over an hour to go before he needed to start braking for his
+landing on Luna, Pete Dudley sat at the controls of the rocket freighter
+and tried to think of anything else that needed checking after his
+spinning the ship. He drummed absently with the fingers of his right
+hand upon the buckle of the seat strap which restrained him from
+floating out of the padded acceleration seat.
+
+"Let's see, tail's right out there in front. I got the angle perfect.
+Guess everything's okay."
+
+He noticed his fingers drumming, and stopped.
+
+"Cut that out!" he told himself. "Get nervous now and Jack'll be sending
+some other vacuum on the next Mars run. There's Ericsson dead center in
+the screen, waiting for you to plop down beside the domes. You couldn't
+miss a crater that size if you tried."
+
+He leaned back and stared speculatively at the curving tip of the Lunar
+Rockies that ended in one of the largest craters on the far side of
+Luna. His eyes squinted slightly and there was a crease between them, as
+if he spent much time peering into instruments. There were deeper lines
+beside his mouth, but the thin lips and pointed chin neutralized that
+evidence of frequent smiling.
+
+"Are we nearly there?"
+
+Dudley's brown eyes opened so wide that the whites gleamed in the dim
+light from his instruments. Then he shut them tightly and shook his head
+quickly.
+
+He had thought he heard a woman's voice, and of course he couldn't have.
+Freight rockets were checked out of Terran spaceports with only a pilot
+aboard. A lonely job for a man, but it was really only a way of keeping
+in practice. He made six round trips to Luna a year, but the big one was
+the three-month kick to Mars.
+
+Then he smelled the perfume, so out of place in the machine-crowded
+compartment. He turned around slowly.
+
+She stood with one hand gripping the lead of a computing machine to keep
+her feet on the deck. Dudley stared her up and down two or three times
+before he realized his mouth hung open.
+
+Slim and about five-feet-four, she looked like a nice little girl making
+her first disastrous experiments with adult make-up. The slack suit of
+deep blue, revealing a soft white blouse at the neck of the jacket, was
+in the best of taste, but her heavy application of lipstick was crude.
+
+_And her hair isn't naturally ash-blonde_, Dudley thought. _Yet she
+looks like such a kid. Not pretty, but she might be in a few years._
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded harshly.
+
+For a second, her eyes were scared. Then the expression was supplanted
+by a hard, make-believe confidence, leaving him merely with a fading
+sense of shame at his tone.
+
+"Same as you," she said boldly. "Going to Luna."
+
+Dudley snorted. "Then relax," he growled, "because I can't stop you now.
+Where the devil did you spend the last thirty-six hours?"
+
+She tried a grin. "In the little room where the things are that pump the
+air. I sneaked in the galley once, when you were asleep. Did you miss
+anything?"
+
+"No," he admitted, thinking back.
+
+"See? I'm not enough trouble to be noticed!"
+
+Dudley eyed her sourly. There was trouble behind this somewhere, he was
+willing to bet, or else why had she stowed away? Running from a family
+fight? When the port checkers at Ericsson saw her--!
+
+"How old are you, kid?" he asked.
+
+"Twenty-one."
+
+The answer was too pat and quickly given. Even the girl seemed to
+realize that, and she continued talking. "My name's Kathi Foster. You're
+the next Mars pilot, according to the schedule, aren't you?"
+
+"What about it?"
+
+She let go of the cable and pushed her weightless body across the
+control room to his chair.
+
+"What's it like on Mars?" she asked breathlessly.
+
+_What does she expect me to tell her?_ Dudley wondered cynically. _That
+the whole population of the colony is only about four thousand? That
+they still live mostly on hope, dreams, and regular rocket service? That
+every one of them represents such a fantastic transportation expense
+that the Commission only sends top-notch people?_
+
+"It's pretty tough," he said.
+
+She hesitated over his unhelpful reply, then plunged ahead.
+
+"How about taking me along to see for myself?"
+
+Dudley smiled with one corner of his mouth.
+
+"You're not going anywhere except back to Terra on the next rocket," he
+predicted flatly. "And I hope your father still has enough hair on his
+head to own a hair-brush!"
+
+"My father is dead."
+
+"Then your--." He paused as she shook her head. "Well, don't you have
+any family? Jobs on Luna are ... limited. The settlements just aren't
+very big. You're better off down home."
+
+Kathi's half-defiant, half-wheedling mask cracked. Her over-painted lips
+twitched.
+
+"What do you know about where I'm better off? If you knew the kind of
+family I have--."
+
+"Oh, calm down!" grunted Dudley, somewhat discomforted by the sight of
+tears spilling from her blue eyes. "Things are never as bad as you think
+when you're just a ... when you're young. When we land, we can say you
+got left aboard by mistake. They'll just send you back without any
+trouble."
+
+"Like hell they will! I won't go!"
+
+Dudley stared hard at her, until she dropped her gaze.
+
+"You don't understand," she said more quietly. "I ... my family has been
+kicking me around the law courts all my life just because my grandfather
+left me his money. They're all trying to get their hands on it, or on me
+to back up their claims. Do you realize I'm eight--I'm twenty-one and I
+never lived a happy day in my life? I'd rather _die_ than go back!"
+
+"Yeah, sure," said Dudley. "What did you really do to make you so scared
+of going back? Smack up grandpop's helicopter, maybe, or flunk out of
+school?"
+
+"No, I got sick and tired of being shoved around. I wanted to get away
+someplace where I could be myself."
+
+"Why didn't you buy a ticket on a passenger rocket, if you had such an
+urge to visit Luna?"
+
+"My aunts and uncles and cousins have all my money tied up in suits."
+
+He leaned back by pushing the edge of the control desk.
+
+"Pretty fast with the answers, aren't you?" he grinned. "I wonder what
+you'll think up for the spaceport police when _they_ ask you?"
+
+"You don't believe--," she began.
+
+He shook his head and to avoid further argument he picked up his
+sliderule, muttering something about checking his landing curve.
+Actually, he was not as convinced as he pretended that her story was all
+lies.
+
+_But what the hell?_ he thought. _I have my own troubles without
+worrying because some blonde little spiral thinks she can go dramatic
+over a family spat. She'd better learn that life is full of give and
+take._
+
+"You better get attached to something around here," he warned her when
+the time came for serious deceleration.
+
+"I ... I could go back where I was," she stammered. He suddenly realized
+that for the past hour she had silently accepted his ignoring her. She
+asked now, "What happens next?"
+
+"We cut our speed and come down on the tail as near to the domes of the
+Ericsson settlement as possible without taking too much of a chance.
+Then I secure everything for the towing."
+
+"Towing? I'm sorry; I never read much about the moon rockets."
+
+"Natural enough," Dudley retorted dryly. "Anyway, they send out big
+cranes to lower the rocket to horizontal so they can tow it on wheels
+under one of the loading domes. Handling cargo goes a lot faster and
+safer that way. Most of the town itself is underground."
+
+He began warming up his tele-screen prior to asking the spaceport for
+observation of his approach. Kathi grabbed his elbow.
+
+"Of course I'm going to talk with them," he answered her startled
+question.
+
+"Can they see me here behind you?"
+
+"I guess so. Maybe not too clear, but they'll see somebody's with me.
+What's the difference? It'll just save them a shock later."
+
+"Why should they see me at all? I can hide till after you leave the
+ship, and--."
+
+"Fat chance!" grunted Dudley. "Forget it."
+
+"Please, Dudley! I--I don't want to get you in any trouble, for one
+thing. At least, let me get out of sight now. Maybe you'll change your
+mind before we land."
+
+He looked at her, and the anxiety seemed real enough. Knowing he was
+only letting her postpone the unpleasantness but reluctant to make her
+face it, he shrugged.
+
+"All right, then! Go somewhere and wipe that stuff off your face. But
+stop dreaming!"
+
+He waited until she had disappeared into one or another of the tiny
+compartments behind the control room, then sent out his call to the
+Lunar settlement.
+
+The problem did not affect his landing; in fact, he did better than
+usual. His stubby but deft fingers lacked their ordinary tendency to
+tighten up, now that part of his mind was rehearsing the best way to
+explain the presence of an unauthorized passenger.
+
+In the end, when he had the rocket parked neatly on the extremities of
+its fins less than a quarter of a mile from one of the port domes, he
+had not yet made up his mind.
+
+"Nice landing, Pete," the ground observer told him. "Buy you a drink
+later?"
+
+"Uh ... yeah, sure!" Dudley answered. "Say, is Jack Fisher anywhere
+around?"
+
+"Jack? No, I guess he's gone bottom level. We're having 'night' just
+now, you know. Why? What do you want a cop for?"
+
+Suddenly, it was too difficult.
+
+_If she could hide as long as she did, she could have done it all the
+way_, he told himself.
+
+"Oh, don't wake him up if he's asleep," he said hastily. "I just thought
+I'd have dinner with him sometime before I leave."
+
+He waited sullenly while the great self-propelled machines glided out
+over the smooth floor of the crater toward the ship, despising himself
+for giving in.
+
+_Well, I just won't know anything about her_, he decided. _Let her have
+her little fling on Luna! It won't last long._
+
+He closed the key that would guard against accidental activation of the
+controls and, enjoying the ability to walk even at one-sixth his normal
+weight, went about securing loose objects. When the space-suited figures
+outside signaled, he was ready for the tilt.
+
+Once under the dome, he strode out through the airlock as if innocent of
+any thought but getting breakfast. He exchanged greetings with some of
+the tow crew, turned over his manifesto to the yawning checker who met
+him, and headed for the entrance of the tunnel to the main part of the
+settlement.
+
+Only when he had chosen a monorail car and started off along the tunnel
+toward the underground city a mile away did he let himself wonder about
+Kathi Foster.
+
+"Her problem now," he muttered, but he felt a little sorry for her
+despite his view that she needed to grow up.
+
+Later in the "day," he reported to transportation headquarters.
+
+"Hiya, Pete!" grinned Les Snowdon, chief of the section. "All set for
+the Ruby Planet?"
+
+Dudley grimaced. "I suppose so," he said. "Left my locker mostly packed,
+except for what I'll need for a couple of days. When do we go out and
+who's the crew?"
+
+"Jarkowski, Campiglia, and Wells. You have three days to make merry and
+one to sober up."
+
+"I sober fast," said Dudley.
+
+Snowdon shook his head in mock admiration. "Nevertheless," he said, "the
+physical will be on the fourth morning from now. Don't get in any fights
+over on Level C--or if you do, let the girl do the punching for you! A
+broken finger, my boy, and you'll ruin the whole Martian schedule!"
+
+"Ah, go on!" Dudley grinned, moving toward the door. "They can always
+stick you in there, and make you earn your pay again."
+
+"They're still paying me for the things I did in the old days," retorted
+Snowdon. "Until I get caught up, I'm satisfied to keep a little gravity
+under my butt. Oh ... by the way, your pal Jack Fisher left a call for
+you. Something about dinner tonight."
+
+Dudley thanked him and went off to contact Fisher. Then he returned to
+the pilots' quarters for a shower and strolled along the corridors of
+the underground city to a lunch-room. Food and water were rationed on
+Luna, but not nearly as tightly as they would be for him during the next
+three months.
+
+That night, he joined Fisher and his wife for dinner at The View,
+Ericsson's chief center of escape from the drabness of Lunar life. It
+was the only restaurant, according to the boast of its staff, where one
+could actually dine under the stars.
+
+"Sometimes I wish that dome wasn't so transparent," said Fisher. "Sit
+down, the girls will be back in a minute."
+
+Dudley eyed him affectionately. Fisher was head of the settlement's
+small police force, but managed to look more like the proprietor of one
+of the several bars that flourished in the levels of the city just under
+the restaurant. He was heavy enough to look less than his six feet, and
+his face was as square as the rest of him. Dark hair retreated
+reluctantly from his forehead, and the blue eyes set peering above his
+pudgy cheeks were shrewd.
+
+"Girls?" asked Dudley.
+
+"We brought along a new arrival to keep you company," said Fisher. "She
+works in one of the film libraries or something like that."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_Which means that's as good an excuse as any for having her at
+Ericsson_, thought Dudley. _Anyway, I'm glad Jack is the sort to be
+realistic about things like bars and other ... recreation. There'd be
+more guys turning a little variable from too much time in space without
+some outlet._
+
+"Here she comes with Myra," said his host. "Name's Eileen."
+
+Dudley smiled at Mrs. Fisher and was introduced to the red-haired girl
+with her. Eileen eyed him speculatively, then donned her best air of
+friendliness. The evening passed rapidly.
+
+For the next few days, besides seeing the Fishers and looking up the men
+who were to be his crew, Dudley spent a lot of time with Eileen. There
+seemed to be little difficulty about her getting time off from whatever
+her official duties were. She showed him all the bars and movie theatres
+and other amusements that the underground city could boast, and Dudley
+made the most of them in spite of his recent visit to Terra. On the
+Mars-bound rocket, they would be lucky, if allowed one deck of cards and
+half a dozen books for the entertainment of the four of them.
+
+It was on the "evening" of his third day that the specter haunting the
+back of his mind pushed forward to confront him. He had listened for
+gossip, but there had been no word of the discovery of an unauthorized
+arrival. Then, as he was taking Eileen to her underground apartment, he
+heard his name called.
+
+There she was, with an escort of three young men he guessed to be
+operators of the machinery that still drilled out new corridors in the
+rock around the city. Somehow she had exchanged the black slack suit for
+a bright red dress that was even more daring than Eileen's. In the
+regulated temperature, clothing was generally light, but Dudley's first
+thought was that this was overdoing a good thing.
+
+"May I have a word with you, Dudley?" Kathi asked, coming across the
+corridor while her young men waited with shifting feet and displeased
+looks.
+
+Dudley glanced helplessly at Eileen, wondering about an introduction. He
+had never bothered to learn her last name, and he had no idea of what
+name Kathi was using. The redhead had pity on him.
+
+"My door's only a few yards down," she said. "I'll wait."
+
+She swept Kathi with a glance of amused confidence and walked away. It
+seemed to Dudley that she made sure the three young men followed her
+with their eyes; but then he was kicking off for Mars within twenty-four
+hours, so he could hardly object to that.
+
+"Have you changed your mind?" demanded Kathi with a fierce eagerness.
+
+"Not so loud!" hushed Dudley. "About what? And how did you get that
+rig?"
+
+Had he been less dismayed at her presence, he might have remarked that
+the tight dress only emphasized her immaturity, but she gave him no time
+to say more.
+
+"About Mars, Dudley. Can't you take me? I'm afraid those illegitimate
+blood-suckers are going to send after me. They could sniff out which way
+a nickel rolled in a coal-bin."
+
+"Aren't you just a shade young for that kind of talk?"
+
+"I guess I'm a little frightened," she admitted.
+
+"You frighten me, too," he retorted. "How are you ... I mean, what do
+you--?"
+
+She tossed her blonde hair.
+
+"There are ways to get along here, I found out. I didn't get arrested
+this time, did I? So why can't you take a chance with me to Mars?"
+
+"Take an eclipse on that," said Dudley with a flat sweep of his hand.
+"It's just out of the question. For one thing, there are four of us
+going, and you can't hide for the whole trip without _somebody_ catching
+on."
+
+"All right," she said quietly. "Why not?"
+
+"What do you mean, 'Why not?'"
+
+"I'm willing to earn my passage. What if there _are_ four of you?"
+
+For a long moment, Dudley discovered things about himself, with the
+sudden realization that the idea appealed to some suppressed part of his
+mind. He had never kidded himself about being a saint. The thing had
+possibilities. _Maybe one of the others can be talked into restraint
+into her._
+
+He snapped out of it. "Don't be a little fool!" he grated. "If you want
+my advice, you'll--."
+
+"Well, I _don't_ want your goddam advice! If you're too yellow to try
+it, I'll find somebody else. There'll be another rocket after yours, you
+know. Maybe they'll have a _man_ on it!"
+
+He felt his face go white and then flush as he stared at her. He did not
+know what to say. She looked like a child, but the outburst was more
+than a mere tantrum.
+
+_Sounds as if she's never been crossed before_, he thought. _I ought to
+haul off and slap a little self-restraint into her._
+
+Instead, he beckoned to the three men, who had been edging closer with
+aggrieved expressions.
+
+"How about taking your girl friend along?" he said flatly.
+
+One of them took her by the elbow and tried to murmur something in her
+ear, but Kathi shook him off.
+
+"If you are afraid for your license, Dudley, I'll say I hid without your
+knowing it. I'll say one of the others let me in. Please, Dudley. I'm
+sorry I talked to you like that."
+
+She was making a fool of him, and of herself, he decided. And in
+another minute, she would spill the whole thing, the way she was
+sounding off. And her friends were beginning to look hostile as it was.
+
+"What's the trouble?" asked one of them.
+
+"Nothing that won't clear up if you pour a couple of drinks into her,"
+said Dudley disgustedly.
+
+He walked away, and they held her from following.
+
+"_Dudley!_" she yelled after him. "They'll send me back! Please, Dudley.
+I won't go. You remember what I said about going back--."
+
+Her voice was getting too shrill. Someone in the group must have put his
+hand over her mouth, for when Dudley looked back, they were rounding a
+corner of the corridor more or less silently.
+
+Eileen waited in the half-open door, watching him quizzically. "Friend
+of yours?" she drawled.
+
+"After a fashion," admitted Dudley, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe
+his forehead. "Spoiled brat!"
+
+He fumbled in a pocket of his jacket, and withdrew a small package.
+"Here's the bracelet that matches that necklace," he said. "I knew I had
+it in my locker somewhere."
+
+Her thanks were very adequate.
+
+"Aren't you coming in?" Eileen asked after the pause.
+
+"No ... I don't ... I have to get a good night's sleep, you know. We
+kick off tomorrow."
+
+She pursed her lips in a small pout, but shrugged. "Then look me up when
+you get back, Pete."
+
+"Yeah. Sure."
+
+He kissed her quickly and walked away, drumming the fingers of his right
+hand against his thigh.
+
+Except for the tenseness of blasting off and landing, the round trip to
+Mars was as boring as he expected. Campiglia won too many chess games at
+one move per watch, and the deck of cards wore out. For a few days,
+Wells had a slightly infected finger after cutting himself, but it was a
+small crisis. The layover on Mars was short, and the thrill was no
+longer new.
+
+Dudley was glad to step out of the big rocket on Luna.
+
+They had come in during the sleeping period at Ericsson, so the four of
+them had gone to their quarters for a few hours of sleep after the first
+babble of welcome from those on duty when they landed. Dudley was
+awakened by Jack Fisher.
+
+"So early?" he grunted, squinting at his watch. "What brings you
+around?"
+
+Fisher settled his bulk in the only chair of the bedroom that was to be
+Dudley's until his next Terra-bound rocket.
+
+"Liable to be busy today," he said easily, "so I thought I'd have
+breakfast with you."
+
+"Fine!" said Dudley. "Wait'll I shave and I'll be with you."
+
+When he returned from the bathroom, he thought that he had perfect
+control of his features. There might not be anything wrong, but it
+seemed odd that Jack should be around so soon. He wondered if the Kathi
+Foster affair was in the background.
+
+They went up a few levels to a minor eating place and had scrambled eggs
+that almost tasted natural. Over the coffee, Fisher opened up.
+
+"Had a little excitement while you were gone," he said.
+
+"Yeah? What?"
+
+Fisher let him wait while he carefully unwrapped the half-smoked remains
+of a cigar. Tobacco in any form was strictly rationed in all Lunar
+settlements.
+
+"Ever hear of old Robert Forgeron?" he asked.
+
+"The one they used to call 'Robber' Forgeron?"
+
+"That's right. He had so many patents on airlock mechanisms and
+space-suit gadgets and rocket control instruments that he made the
+goddamnedest fortune ever heard of out of space exploration. Died a few
+years ago."
+
+Dudley maintained a puzzled silence.
+
+"Seems the old man had strong ideas about that fortune," continued
+Fisher. "Left the bulk of it to his only granddaughter."
+
+"That must have made headlines," Dudley commented.
+
+"Sure did." Fisher had the cigar going, now, and he puffed economically
+upon it. "Especially when she ran away from home."
+
+"Oh?" Dudley felt it coming. "Where to?"
+
+"Here!"
+
+Fisher held his cigar between thumb and forefinger and examined it
+fondly.
+
+"Said her name was Kathi Foster instead of Kathi Forgeron. After they
+got around to guessing she was on Luna, and sent descriptions, we picked
+her up, of course. Shortly after you kicked off for Mars, in fact."
+
+Dudley was silent. The other's shrewd little eyes glinted bluely at him
+through the cigar smoke.
+
+"How about it, Pete? I've been trying to figure how she got here. If it
+was you, you needn't worry about the regulations. There was some sort of
+litigation going on, and all kinds of relatives came boiling up here to
+get her. All the hullabaloo is over by now."
+
+Dudley took a deep breath, and told his side of the story. Fisher
+listened quietly, nodding occasionally with the satisfaction of one who
+had guessed the answer.
+
+"So you see how it was, Jack. I didn't really believe the kid's story.
+And she was so wild about it!"
+
+Fisher put out his cigar with loving care.
+
+"Got to save the rest of this for dinner," he said. "Yes, she was wild,
+in a way. You should hear--well, that's in the files. Before we were
+sure who she was, Snowdon put her on as a secretary in his section."
+
+"She didn't look to me like a typist," objected Dudley.
+
+"Oh, she wasn't," said Fisher, without elaborating. "I suppose if she
+_was_ a little nuts, she was just a victim of the times. If it hadn't
+been for the sudden plunge into space, old Forgeron wouldn't have made
+such a pile of quick money. Then his granddaughter might have grown up
+in a normal home, instead of feeling she was just a target. If she'd
+been born a generation earlier or later, she might have been okay."
+
+Dudley thought of the girl's pleading, her frenzy to escape her
+environment.
+
+"So I suppose they dragged her back," he said. "Which loving relative
+won custody of the money?"
+
+"That's still going on," Fisher told him. "It's tougher than ever, I
+hear, because she didn't go down with them. She talked somebody into
+letting her have a space-suit and walked out to the other side of the
+ringwall. All the way to the foothills on the other side."
+
+Dudley stared at him in mounting horror. Fisher seemed undisturbed, but
+the pilot knew his friend better than that. It could only mean that the
+other had had three months to become accustomed to the idea. He was
+tenderly tucking away the stub of his cigar.
+
+"Wasn't so bad, I guess," he answered Dudley's unspoken question. "She
+took a pill and sat down. Couple of rock-tappers looking for ore found
+her. Frozen stiff, of course, when her batteries ran down."
+
+Dudley planted his elbows on the table and leaned his head in his hands.
+
+"I should have taken her to Mars!" he groaned.
+
+"She tried that on you, too?" Fisher was unsurprised. "No, Pete, it
+wouldn't have done any good. Would've lost you your job, probably. Like
+I said, she was born the wrong time. They won't have room for the likes
+of her on Mars for a good many years yet."
+
+"So they hauled her back to Terra, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, no. The relatives are fighting that out, too. So, until the judges
+get their injunctions shuffled and dealt, little Kathi is sitting out
+there viewing the Rockies and the stars."
+
+He looked up at Dudley's stifled exclamation.
+
+"Well, it's good and cold out there," he said defensively. "We don't
+have any spare space around here to store delayed shipments, you know.
+We're waitin' to see who gets possession."
+
+Dudley rose, his face white. He was abruptly conscious once more of
+other conversations around them, as he stalked toward the exit.
+
+"Hey," Fisher called after him, "that redhead, Eileen, told me to ask
+if you're taking her out tonight."
+
+Dudley paused. He ran a hand over his face. "Yeah, I guess so," he said.
+
+He went out, thinking, _I should have taken her. The hell with
+regulations and Jack's theories about her being born too soon to be
+useful on Mars. She might have straightened out._
+
+He headed for the tunnel that led to the loading domes.
+
+Ericsson was a large crater, over a hundred miles across and with a
+beautifully intact ringwall, so it took him some hours, even with the
+tractor he borrowed, to go as far as the edge of the crater. Jack Fisher
+was waiting for him in the surface dome when he returned hours later.
+
+"Welcome back," he said, chewing nervously on his cigar. "I was
+wondering if we'd have to go looking for you." He looked relieved.
+
+"How did she look?" he asked casually, as Dudley climbed out of his
+space suit in the locker room.
+
+Dudley peeled off the one-piece suit he had worn under the heating pads.
+He sniffed.
+
+"Chee-rist, I need a shower after that.... She looked all right. Pretty
+cute, in a way. Like she was happy here on Luna."
+
+He picked up towel and soap. "So I fixed it so she could stay," he
+added.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+He looked at Fisher. "Are you asking as a friend or as a cop?"
+
+"What difference does it make?" asked Fisher.
+
+"Well, I don't think you could have tracked me with your radar past the
+ringwall, so maybe I just went for a ride and a little stroll, huh? You
+didn't see me bring back a shovel, did you?"
+
+"No," said Fisher, "I didn't see you bring it back. But some people are
+going to get excited about this, Pete. Where did you bury her?"
+
+"Blood-suckers!" said Dudley. "Let them get excited! Luna is full of
+mysteries."
+
+"All right," said Fisher. "For my own curiosity, then, I'm asking as a
+friend."
+
+"I found a good place," said Dudley. "I kind of forget where, in the
+middle of all those cliffs and rills, but it had a nice view of the
+stars. They'll never find her to take her back! I think I owed her that
+much."
+
+"Ummm," grunted Fisher.
+
+As Dudley entered the shower, the other began to unwrap a new cigar, a
+not-displeased expression settling over his square, pudgy face.
+
+Under the slow-falling streams of warm water, Dudley gradually began to
+relax. He felt the stiffness ease out of his jaw muscles. He turned off
+the bubbling water before he could begin imagining he was hearing a
+scared voice pleading again for passage to Mars....
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Luna Escapade, by H. B. Fyfe
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40961 ***