Hours later, Ted lay awake in the upper bunk of the double-deck bed he shared with Randy. The foam-rubber mattress under him was soft as a cloud, and the cool artificial air of the house inflated his lungs satisfyingly.  
But though he was comfortable, Ted could not sleep. He had lain awake for an hour. He guessed it was because of the excitement of the past few days and the fact that this was his first night on solid ground after months of life in space.
 
100
He climbed down the ladder to the floor, quietly so as not to disturb Randy. He stared through the clear plastic walls of his room at the hushed Martian night. The sky was a glittering canopy of starlight. Phobos, the fleet closer moon, cast a weak light over the landscape. Beyond their desert back yard, Ted saw the dark spreading mass of the sand bog which he had been warned about. It was like quicksand and would draw anything that touched it down to destruction. Ringing the bog Ted saw thick clusters of white flowers, which his father had said was a favorite food of the little Martian color bears.
 
Ted had also learned that the animals fed at night. He wondered if any of the creatures were in these parts, and if there were any chance he would see one of them. He kept his eyes on the bog for what seemed an hour, but he caught no sign of movement down there. At last his eyes grew blurry and he thought he could sleep. He turned away and climbed the ladder.
 
Just as his lids closed, something startled him, and he jerked up in bed. He wasn’t sure what had aroused him. He sat there in the semidarkness, his heart bumping rapidly, his ears alerted.
 
101
Then he heard a sound. It seemed far off. It was like a wail, a cry. He came down the ladder again. In his haste, he tripped on the bottom rung and went sprawling. He turned anxiously toward the bed and saw Randy sit up.
 
“I’m sorry, Randy,” Ted said. “I thought I heard something outdoors.”
 
(uncaptioned)
“I heard it, too,” Randy said.
 
The two looked outside, straining their eyes to pierce the shadowy night. Suddenly Randy Whispered tensely, “There!”
 
102
Ted stared where he pointed. There was a figure at the edge of the bog. They heard the sound repeated. It seemed to be coming from the moving figure. Ted suddenly remembered his father’s field glasses lying on a table in his parents’ room. Before going to bed, all of them had used them to study the stars.
 
Ted tiptoed down the hall into his parents’ room. Carefully he lifted the glasses from the table and returned to his own room. He could hardly wait to train the glasses on the mysterious thing beside the bog.
 
“Did you hear it again?” Ted asked as he swept his glasses over the landscape.
 
Randy nodded. “It sounded like a color bear. He must be in trouble.”
 
Finally Ted found what he was looking for. He was able to make out a little furry body struggling at the bog’s edge. The animal appeared to be trapped in the marsh. One stubby paw was grasping a root growing out of the bank. Ted handed the glasses to Randy.
 
“It’s a color bear,” Randy whispered. “He’s stuck in the bog. He’ll never get out by himself.”
 
103
Ted saw a wistful look on Randy’s face. “I sure hate to see anything happen to those little fellows. They’re so friendly.”
 
“You mean they make good pets?” Ted wanted to know.
 
“They sure do,” Randy answered. “I owned one once, until he fell into a bog. It seems they always end up in one sooner or later.”
 
“I wonder if we could help him,” Ted suggested.
 
“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.
 
104
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 ............