“Then who will?” demanded Cochrane.

“We’ll make what tests we can,” said Holden comfortingly, “and decide for ourselves.  We can take a chance.  We’re only risking our lives!”

Babs brought Cochrane a plate.  He put food in his mouth and chewed and swallowed.

“They say we can’t afford to breathe the local air at all until we know its bacteriology; we can’t touch anything until we test it as a possible allergen; we can’t.”

Holden grunted.

“What would those same authorities have told your friend Columbus?  On a strange continent he’d be sure to find strange plants and strange animals.  He’d find strange races of men and he ought to find strange diseases.  They’d have warned him not to risk it. They wouldn’t!”

Cochrane ate with a sort of angry vigor.  Then he snapped: 

“If you want to know, we’ve got to land!  We’re sunk if we don’t go outside and move around!  We’ll spoil our story-line.  This is the greatest adventure-serial anybody on Earth ever tuned in to follow!  If we back down on exploration, our audience will be disgusted and resentful and they’ll take it out on our sponsors!”

Babs said softly, to Holden: 

“That’s my boss!”

Cochrane glared at her.  He didn’t know how to take the comment.  He said to Holden: 

“Tomorrow we’ll try to figure out some sort of test and try the air.  I’ll go out in a space-suit and crack the face-plate!  I can close it again before anything lethal gets in.  But there’s no use stepping out into a bed of coals tonight.  I’ll have to wait till morning.”

Holden smiled at him.  Babs regarded him with intent, enigmatic eyes.

Neither of them said anything more.  Cochrane finished his meal.  Then he found himself without an occupation.  Gravity on this planet was very nearly the same as on Earth.  It felt like more, of course, because all of them had been subject only to moon-gravity for nearly three weeks.  Jones and the pilot had been in one-sixth gravity for a much longer time.  And the absence of gravity had caused their muscles to lose tone by just about the amount that the same time spent in a hospital bed would have done.  They felt physically worn out.

It was a healthy tiredness, though, and their muscles would come back to normal as quickly as one recovers strength after illness—­rather faster, in fact.  But tonight there would be no night-life on the space-ship.  Johnny Simms disappeared, after symptoms of fretfulness akin to those of an over-tired small boy.  Jamison gave up, and Bell, and Al the pilot fell asleep while Jones was trying to discuss something technical with him.  Jones himself yawned and yawned and when Al snored in his face he gave up.  They retired to their bunks.