THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED blurred into a daze of thirst and ceaseless watching. For easier defense, there was only one way down from the parapet through the net. They took the least rusted of the guns and filled the small gap. They could hold out there until they collapsed, or the net gave.
They wasted several quarts of water in vain attempts to drink. Then they gave it up. The final irony of it made Tex laugh.
"Here we are, being noble till it hurts, and it won't matter a damn. The Skipper was right. It's the rust that'll lose us Venus in the end - that, and these Dry Spots."
Food made thirst greater. They stopped eating. They became mere skeletons, moving feebly in sweat-box heat. Breska stopped coughing.
"It's breathing dry air," he said, in a croaking whisper. "It's so funny I could l
