The problem did not affect his landing; in fact, he did better than usual. His stubby but deft fingers lacked their ordinary tendency to tighten up, now that part of his mind was rehearsing the best way to explain the presence of an unauthorized passenger.
In the end, when he had the rocket parked neatly on the extremities of its fins less than a quarter of a mile from one of the port domes, he had not yet made up his mind.
"Nice landing, Pete," the ground observer told him. "Buy you a drink later?"
"Uh ... yeah, sure!" Dudley answered. "Say, is Jack Fisher anywhere around?"
"Jack? No, I guess he's gone bottom level. We're having 'night' just now, you know. Why? What do you want a cop for?"
Suddenly, it was too difficult.
If she could hide as long as she did, she could have done it all the way, he told himself.
"Oh, don't wake him up if he's asleep," he said hastily. "I just thought I'd have dinner with him sometime before I leave."
He waited sullenly while the great self-propelled machines glided out over the smooth floor of the crater toward the ship, despising himself for giving in.
Well, I just won't know anything about her, he decided. Let her have her little fling on Luna! It won't last long.