The captain pressed their arms affectionately. Garry knew how he felt about his helplessness to do anything.
“You ask if there’s anything we could do,” Captain Eaton said. “Of course we’re not giving up hope completely at this early stage, but things do look bad. We could ration ourselves severely and maybe prolong our existence a few days, but after that....”
Garry finished the gloomy sentence in his own mind.
16. A SAD PARTING
They did wait—all the long day to follow.
And in all that time, no one came.
They did the same things that they had done the day before—reading by the light of the earth, which they feared they would never see again; reading until their eyes blurred and the battery had gone dead in their only flashlight.
Garry and Patch did not read much. Instead, they spent most of their time looking out over the cold gray dust, and up into the black sky, looking hopefully for some moving object against the bleak wilderness and wanting to be the first to spot it should it appear. But it never appeared, and bed-time came, but no one was in the spirit for sleep. And yet, since there was little else to do, everyone prepared for bed.
Garry and Patch lay awake in their adjoining seats, talking in low voices to each other.