"We're not walking into any trap, Colonel," Harvey Flanders said. "If you want to do any dickering, you'll have to come see us. You know where to get us if you want us."
The two men started up the road. Baker watched them with sick eyes as they went with firm steps to Harvey Flanders' house, and disappeared inside the doorway.
Inside Harvey Flanders' doorway, Dr. Lurie staggered. Harvey caught him, but didn't have the strength to hold him, and both sagged to the floor. "Quick, Ruth," Harvey said, gasping.
She was waiting with the oxygen packs. Red Brace was with her. They fitted the masks quickly over the faces of the two men on the floor, and anxiously watched their rapid, intense breathing.
In a little while, Harvey and Dr. Lurie were breathing at a normal rate. They got up and sat at the table, where Ruth had breakfast ready.
"Do you think he'll come?" Dr. Lurie said.
"He has to," Harvey said. "He can't afford to let anybody spread a new gospel among his people."
"Would you guys mind explaining what this is all about?" growled Red Brace.
Harvey laughed. "Sure, Red. It's nothing complicated; not very, anyway. Baker keeps plugging away at the fact that this is the same as living at a 27,000-foot altitude. It struck me suddenly that if that were really the case, some of us would be suffering from nose bleeds and other symptoms you get when you go up to a thin atmosphere, where the outside pressure is less than the body's blood pressure. But nothing like that has happened. So obviously, the atmospheric pressure must be about normal—the same pressure we have on Earth. There's less oxygen, but there's more carbon dioxide and there must be more of other gases, like nitrogen, to make up the full amount of pressure.