Authentic Science Fiction, December 1951 — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

60 THE MOON IS HEAVEN Then it comes to you, Somebody’s got to do it. You might as well. You edge over to the air-lock and quietly open the inner door. They don’t look up as you go in and close the door behind you. Within seconds you are out of the dome again. Bending down and searching the ground carefully, you find what you are after. Something that you might have seen on the way back from the survey if you hadn’t been so engrossed with. philosophy. Near the door the moon dust has been disturbed: A lot of it is just chaotic scrabblings where everybody’s feet have been, but there is one track leading out of the mess that leads in a new direction. Up to the rocks, but not towards the space ship. You follow it. It’s only when you come to the base of the rocks that you realise it is not going to be as simple as you thought. The trail just peters out and for the life of you, you don’t. know where to go. So you sit down and think it out. You put yourself in Clavier’s position. -Try to be Clavier. What is a chap like that likely to do? He’s upset, naturally, with the business of hitting Schnabel. And at being insulted. But the dominant idea in his mind will be that he’s let the side down, or whatever the Continental equivalent of “‘ not cricket ’’ is In that case, he’s likely just to go on walking, moving away from the dome and the ship. Not really knowing what he’s doing or where he’s going. And men who do that usually move in a straight line, or pretty nearly. It’s only when a person is trying to go straight that they get off trail. So you get up and start climbing, not worrying about whether you are on course, just moving forward and up, hand over hand, foot after foot. It’s quite pleasant in a way. You realise you must have a mountain-climbing streak in your nature. Something that you’d never discovered be- fore. You had to come all the way to the Moon to find out. But then after a bit, it isn’t so pleasant. You are getting comicbooks.com