But it was almost impossible to edge his way backward with Gordette's dead weight dangling from his outstretched arm. Grunting, teeth gritted, eyes stinging with sweat, Doug inched back along the glassy rock. It was painfully, agonizingly slow. He felt woozy, head spinning.

"What're y'all doing down… oh my God!" Edith's voice.

Doug couldn't see her, didn't know how she had gotten there. But she sounded like an angel to him.

"Edith! Where's the tractor?"

"Right here," she said, her voice anxious, high. "I rode out on it."

"Great! Get the tow cable. Quick!"

It seemed to take an eternity and a half for Edith to find the tow cable and then clamber down into the rille behind Doug and tie it to one of the attachment rings on his backpack. She used the cable to climb out again, then went up to the tractor.

"Use the winch," Doug called to her. "Controls are on the dashboard."

Edith stared at the dashboard but couldn't figure out which of the toggles or keypads tan the winch. Instead, she revved up the engines and started backing away, slowly.

"Easy—easy," Doug's voice crackled in her earphones. "He's in a fabric suit."

Edith thought of all the rodeos she had seen, with cowboys guiding their tough little ponies in steer-roping competitions. Just ease on back, she said silently to the tractor. That's it, honey, nice and slow and easy.

"Hold it," Doug commanded. "We're on safe ground but I think Barn's passed out."

Edith clambered down from the tractor and went to the edge of the gulch. Doug was connecting his emergency air hose from his backpack tank to Gordette's. She shook her head inside her helmet. If it'd been me, I'd of let the sumbitch die down there. He tried to kill Doug!

But she heard Gordette cough and sputter and knew he was going to make it. Doug had saved him.

It took the better part of an hour to get them both out of the rille and their air tanks topped off from the tractor's supply. Then Edith started back toward Moonbase with Doug sitting between her and Gordette.

For hours Gordette said nothing. The man just sat on Doug's other side, wrapped in his spacesuit and total silence.

At last Doug said to him, "I've been pretty close to death, Bam. It changes your outlook on life."

"Does it?" Gordette muttered.

"It did for me. I think you're going to find it will for you, too."

Gordette said nothing. Edith thought Doug was wasting his breath.

"When we get back to Moonbase," Doug went on, "you'll have the chance to start a new life. Start all over, with the past gone forever."

"Until they throw you out of Moonbase," Gordette said.

"They're not going to do that, Bam. With your help, we can beat them."

"With my help?"

"I want you with us. I want you to be part of Moonbase."

"Do you?"