"Think we might strike anything down that way," asked Roger. He looked down the canal in the direction Tom had indicated.
"That's the direction of the nearest atmosphere booster station. At least that was the way it looked on the chart. All of them were built near the canals."
"How far away do you think it is?" asked Astro.
"Must be at least three hundred miles."
"Let's start moving," said Roger, "and hope we can find something that'll float us on the canal."
Single file, wearing the space cloths once more as protection against the sun, they walked along the bank of the canal. When the heat became unbearable, they dipped the squares of space cloths into the water and wrapped themselves in them. When they began to dry out, they would repeat the process. At noon, when the sun dried the fabric nearly as fast as they could wet it, they stopped and slipped over the edge of the bank into the cool water. Covering their heads with the cloths they remained partly submerged until the late afternoon. When the sun had lost some of its power, again they climbed out and continued walking.
Marching late into the night, they made camp beside the canal, finished the last container of food, and, for the first time since leaving the ship, slept during the night. By the time Deimos had risen in the sky, they were sound asleep.
