Jon grinned as he trotted along. "Don't really know much more than you. I know how to detect it, and I'll know it if we find it. But to tell ahead of time, I haven't the minnow of an idea."
They had actually gone less than a quarter of a mile when the heat of the sun, reflected from the hot, white, desert sand, became almost unbearable. Finally Jak stopped, wiping the pouring perspiration from his face and neck. "We can't take much of this. Better go back and get our suits."
"Yes, guess you're right." Jon was also working his handkerchief overtime. "The refrigs in them will keep us cooler, even if they're harder to walk in."
"And the suit-goggles will protect us better from the actinic rays of this sun," Jak said. "We're so close—only sixty-five or seventy millions, you said?—that the solar rays are lots stronger than those we get back on Terra, even in the deserts."
"Sure, those jungle trees protected us before, so we didn't notice them."
Their mother heard them as they returned and came to see what the trouble was. When they explained, as they were putting on their suits, she again warned them to be careful.
Then she added, somewhat hastily, "It's just a mother's instinct to keep warning her children to be careful. I know you boys always are—the fact that you came back rather than take chances shows this. Please don't feel badly that I keep nagging at you."
"Heck, Mom, we know you aren't nagging." Jon hugged her. "If you ever quit warning us, that's when we'd really get worried."
Their suits on and the refrigerators working, the pair began retracing their steps. Jon led the way, since he was carrying the detector. They went in a decreasing spiral to locate the center, then made a beeline for that spot.
But after almost a mile the signal seemed to grow weaker, and they stopped for a conference.