“It may be dangerous,” Randy warned. “If we should slip....”
“You’ve been around them before, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I’m willing to try it if you are,” Ted said.
“Let’s go then.”
“We’ll have to be careful not to wake the others,” Ted said.
Softly they crept down the hall to the space-suit closet. Silently they dressed and inflated their suits with oxygen. Then they went through the air lock and on outdoors.
Ted had brought a flashlight. The cone of whiteness fanned out ahead of them, leading the way for them over the red sands. As they drew near the sand bog, the wails of the trapped animal became louder and more frantic.
“We’d better hurry,” Randy said. “He may go down any moment.”
They broke into a run and finally reached the side of the little fellow. The only part of him visible now was his round head, from which projected big cup-handle ears. His short forepaws still clung to the root, but even now the boys could see his grip loosening.