Roger dropped to his hands and knees and poked his head through the open
door, peering around from one end of the huge dark chamber to the other.
Then, taking a deep breath, he rose and stepped quickly inside. He
closed the door behind him and stood still, listening for some sound.

Suddenly there was a flash of light from the opposite wall. Roger
brought the paralo-ray gun up to his shoulder quickly and was about to
fire when he realized that the light he saw was Tom opening the door on
the opposite side. He breathed easier and waited until he could
distinguish Tom's moving figure clearly, and then walked stealthily
forward on a parallel line.

It was the first time Roger had been inside the hangar since it had been
constructed and he was not sure of his way around, but gradually, the
moonlight filtering in through the frosted plates of Titan crystal
illuminated the huge forms of the machines around him.

He stopped and gasped. Without even realizing it, he emitted a long
whistle of astonishment. Before him, reaching up into the shadows of the
cavernous hangar, was the gleaming hull of a huge rocket ship. Two
hundred feet long, the space vessel stood on its stabilizer fins,
ladders and cables running into the open ports on both sides.

Roger waved to Tom, who had also stopped to stare at the giant
spaceship, and the two of them met beneath the gleaming hull.

"What's the matter?" asked Tom. "Astro said you saw someone."

"_I_ didn't see a blasted thing," said Roger in an exasperated whisper.
"That big goof said _he_ did."