"Look, Tex-somehow we've got to get that firecracker out of the mud and put her back into commission. Otherwise we stay here for life."
"Huh? I'd been depending on you, the old Venerian hand, to lead us back to civilization."
"You don't know what you're saying. Maybe you can walk five or six thousand miles through swamps, and sink holes, and cane brake; I can't. Just remember that there isn't a permanent settlement, not even a plantation, more than five hundred miles from either one of the poles. You know Venus isn't really explored-I know about as much about this neck of the woods as you know about Tibet."
"I wonder what in the world the Gary was doing here?" Matt commented.
"Search me."
"Say!" said Tex. "Maybe we can get home in the Gary."
"Maybe we can, but we haven't even found the Gary yet. Consequently if we find we can't, just as soon as we carry out these orders-" Oscar held up the paper he had taken from Thurlow's pouch, "-we've got to find some way to haul the jeep out of the sinkhole."
"With our own, little pink patty-paws?" inquired Tex. "And what's that about our orders? We don't seem to be
in very good shape to go around quelling riots, putting down insurrection, and generally throwing our weight about. We haven't even got a bean shooter, much less a bean* Come to think about it, if I had a bean, I'd eat it."
"Oscar's right," agreed Matt, "We're here; we've got a mission to perform; we've got to carry it out. That's what Mr. Thurlow would say. After that comes trying to figure out a way to get back."