Dear Guys, Hope I didn't smash her up so bad you couldn't find this. When I busted open the safe and left my half-buck for you to find, I didn't expect to get what I got, but Colonel Kenton always said General Kolomar would follow a thief anywhere in the Universe, and that's how I had it figured, too. But anyhow, if you're reading this, then you've made them build a real Ship that can land up here O.K., and so you've got the edge. And the further out you go, the more the edge you got. Try them Martian canals for me sometime, will you? And tell that sergeant I'm sorry I had to hit him so hard. Mc.
I looked up from the note, out through the twisted wreckage, and a hundred yards away at the first Moon-landing ship ever built.
For the Comrades from now on, things were going to be a lot different.
I heard Kolomar's voice at my shoulder. There was a funny hesitation in it that I'd never heard before.
"That's—some ship, isn't it?" was all he said.
"Yes, sir," I answered. "It is." I looked down at the pile of dust that covered McGinty. "It's real first-rate."