Space Cat Meets Mars by Ruthven Todd

Author:Ruthven Todd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Courier Publishing
Published: 2018-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

“Miaow!” said Flyball loudly. If it was a cat it surely would understand that. He looked hard but there was no sign of the figure he thought he had seen.

Flyball tickled his ear thoughtfully. He could not really believe that he had seen a cat. He must have been imagining things in the failing light of the sun.

“The failing light of the sun!” He repeated his thought. The sun was almost down and he remembered what Fred had said. “Be sure to get back before the sun sets, Flyball.”

Without stopping to make a good-bye face at the fish, which was still blowing bubbles, he turned and, after pushing his way through the thick plants, bounded off in the direction of the Halley. The only pause he made was once when he pranced up the steps of a giant shelf-fungus to see that he was still going the right way.

He had no time to think. All he wanted to do was to get to the ship before the sun set, taking with it the oxygen which he needed to breathe. Besides, he had no wish to become a frozen space cat.

Already it was getting cold. He had been so occupied at the side of the canal that he had not noticed it. He bounded and swerved over and around the lichen and fungi which grew between him and the ship.

As he ran, he noticed a difference in the quality of the air his lungs were getting. But as he was travelling as fast as he could, and had not run so hard for a long time, it was difficult to say whether it was a change in the atmosphere or merely shortness of breath after all that exercise!

He was pretty exhausted when, rounding the edge of a lichen, he saw the Halley just ahead of him. Fred was standing at the top of the steps, in the door of the air lock, with his binoculars in his hands, raising them for another sweep around the wrinkled landscape.

“Where have you been, Flyball?” he asked anxiously, as his friend bounded up the steps to join him. “I was beginning to be afraid you’d be caught by the night—and I didn’t know where to find you.”

Flyball, recovering his breath, tilted his head in the direction of the canal. He wished he could tell Fred about his adventures of the afternoon, about the other insects, the mouse and the fish. But not about the cat. He still was not sure about that.

Safely inside the ship, Fred opened the special deep-space refrigerator and took out a can.

Flyball had not realized how hungry he was. Even with the memory of that fine fresh golden fish still in his mind, he found his platter of tuna most pleasing. But he did not eat too much, as he did not want to undo all the good that might have been done during his chase of the armored mouse and his mad dash for the ship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.