But Jak interrupted him almost fiercely. "Don't go playing coy,
Chubby. You know darned well it's wonderful."
"Sure I do." Jon laughed then, and the rest joined in. "But you'd have
tromped on me if I'd been the one to say so." He turned quickly to face
his father. "What do we do about this?"
"_Ummm._ My suggestion would be for you to put on your suit and go out
and open those covers you told me about. Give me the analyzer first,
and I'll study the stuff's emanations when you get it uncovered."
"I'll go out," Jak offered quickly. "You and Jon had better study it
together. I don't know anything about it, but the kid does, and he'll
be the one to handle it until you're well."
"Better take the jack--that cover's heavy, remember?" Jon said, and Jak
ran out.
"I'd never have been able to do anything if it hadn't been for Jak's
wiser advice," Jon said honestly as he brought the analyzer to his
father from the instrument rack. "I'm apt to go off half-cocked, you
know."
Mr. Carver looked fondly up at his wife, who moved quickly to his side,
and put her hand against his cheek. "A couple of grand fellows you
raised, Darling," he said softly.
"_We_ raised, you mean, Mr. C." She smiled down at him. "They fight all
the time, but when it comes to the pinch, they work together and I know
they really love and admire each other very much."
Jon chuckled and spoke into the mike. "The folks are taking our good
names in vain, Owl."
"Yes, I heard them," came back the elder boy's voice from the speaker.
"If they only knew what we really think of each other," and then
followed his attempt at a sneering laugh.
In their visiplates those inside the ship could see Jak, in his
spacesuit, trotting awkwardly across the sand toward the cache. He
carried the jack, and when he got there, used it to raise the heavy
cover and throw it back. He jumped into the hole and took the cover off
the smaller box. Then scrambled quickly out and ran some distance away.
"Shall I come back now, or wait here to cover it again?" he asked over
his suit-sender.
"Maybe you'd better wait out there a few minutes," his father replied
into the mike attached to his seat. "If we can't figure out something
in a fairly short time, I'll tell you and you can recap the boxes and
come back."
He busied himself adjusting the analyzer, and he and young Jon studied
the lines carefully for quite a time. Finally the father roused.
"This is going to take a lot of study and work," he told his younger
son. Then he spoke into the mike. "Better come back in, Jak." He turned
his head again to face the boy with him. "Did you find a lead box, Jon?"
"No, sir, we haven't anything like that in our stores," Jon answered.
"But there is quite a roll of lead foil. Can we do anything with that?"
"How much is there? And how thick is it?"
"The foil's twenty inches wide and about twelve feet long," Jon
reported as he came back after a quick run to the storeroom to measure
the foil. He had delayed a moment or two at the lock to help Jak out of
his suit. "It's a thirty-second thick."
"_Hmmm._ That's not so good. Let's see. If we quadrupled it, that would
give us an eighth ... no, that's not enough. Better take a piece and
fold it to at least eight thicknesses, then go wrap it around a piece
of that metal and bring it into the lock."
"That's not too much protection if the stuff's so strong, is it, Pop?"
"Well, double that, then. But I think it'll keep the rays off you long
enough to bring it in--especially since you'll be in your suit, and if
you put on lead-lined gloves."
"All right." Jon started out, then turned back. "What about the rest of
it when we leave? Do we take it all with us?"
"No," slowly. "I doubt if anyone else would find it and steal it before
we get back. On the other hand, the more we can take back with us,
supposing we learn how to use it and it's as good as we think, the more
we could get for it on Terra to give another immediate stake to come
back."
"I have a thought, Pop. Why not just weld-fasten the whole big box it's
now in to the outside of the ship, and make a small box that'll hold
some to bring into the ship to experiment with?" Jon's eyes blazed
eagerly.
"That's a thought!" Jak exclaimed, while their father answered more
slowly, "Yes, I believe that could be done safely, especially if we
put it back near the stern. Is the ship close enough so the lock
servo-mechs can bring in the big box?"
"I don't think so," Jon answered after a searching look out of the
port-window. "But with our suits on, Jak and I could carry it, couldn't
we?"
"We've been close to the stuff several times for about as long as it'd
take," Jak added, "and it doesn't seem to have hurt us any."
"Kind of a large box, isn't it?" Mr. Carver asked quizzically. "Might
be sort of heavy."
The boys flushed, and Jon picked up his slide rule and did some quick
figuring. Then he announced, crestfallen, "Great mackerel, I sure went
off half-baked that time. OK, I'll take the ship up and bring it down
closer."
"That's mighty delicate maneuvering." His mother looked at him in
astonishment. "Sure you can do it?"