Half-heartedly the five passengers of the little dugout took up their makeshift paddles and held to their course. At least there would be the plastic dome they had erected beside the Tekna to prevent the overcrowding of the ship and perhaps there would be a stock of provisions and weapons left behind for Rurak if he should ever find his way back to the coast.
The dome was still standing although blackened somewhat by the blast of the takeoff.
Into the dome the Martians hurried to find it well stocked with all sorts of provisions and equipment. There was a message left there too in a heavy transparent case bolted to one of the uprights supporting the dome.
"Listen to this, Nitha!" cried Rurak. "They made contact with your father's crew after all. The time was too near for them to wait for us—the New Year you know—so they blasted off for Mars with your father. And next year, or the year after, another expedition will come to Earth. Until then...."
"Yes," asked Nitha, smiling, "until then?"
Rurak felt the warmth of her woman's body beside him as he looked around the snug little dome. Tis and Thod were clicking softly together near the entrance and Elko Sohm was squinting along the sights of an automatic rocket rifle.
"Two more years in this blue hell," he groaned hopelessly. "An old man like me abandoned here on this sponge of a world!"