Dr. Kenton arrived home the following afternoon. Ted could see that he was a very different person from the one who had set out. His father looked tired and beaten. Even the special meal of fresh fruits and vegetables from their garden failed to interest him very much.  
As they were eating supper, his wife asked him, “Why was this expedition so important to you, John?”
 
“I suppose I had counted too much on its being a huge success,” the scientist replied. “Then too, I thought it would solve that all-important question of the disappearing ancient Martians that’s been puzzling us ever since the first landing was made here ten years ago.”
 
202
“There’ll be other expeditions,” Mrs. Kenton said encouragingly. “Some day you’ll find the answer, I’m sure.”
 
“Yes, I suppose so,” Dr. Kenton said. But Ted could see that his father was very downcast because of the expedition’s failure.
 
“I wish I had known you were coming when you did,” Mrs. Kenton said to her husband. “I would have invited Mr. Matthews to eat with us. You knew that Randy had found his father, didn’t you?”
 
Ted was glad to see his father smile as he turned to Randy. “Yes, we got the news,” Dr. Kenton said. “I’m sure glad for you, Randy. You see, it never pays to give up hope. I’ll be pleased to meet your father.”
 
Just then Yank came bounding in from the living room. The bear had taken to the taste of lettuce leaves, and Ted would occasionally slip him a leaf from the table. Yank sidled up to Ted, where he sat next to his father, eyeing the crisp leaves on the boy’s plate. Yank’s other eye was cast warily at Dr. Kenton, whom he still appeared not to regard as a close friend.
 
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“When are you and I going to be friends, Yank?” the scientist said as Ted handed the bear a green leaf. He reached out to pet the little Martian animal, but Yank drew back. “I can’t understand your attitude, young fellow.”
 
Ted thought this the proper moment to bring up a very important matter. “Dad,” he began, “Jill and Randy and I have signed up for a sight-seeing plane tour of Mars with our school class. Mom says it’s all right for us to go if you agree.”
 
Dr. Kenton thought a moment, and Ted felt doubtful. Then his father said, “I think it would be a grand thing for you. You can get a lot better picture of this planet from the air than you ever can from the ground.”
 
“Goody, we can go!” Jill cried out.
 
Ted felt like shouting himself, for now the last barrier had been removed and they were going for sure.
 
204
The next week found twenty-five eager students stepping into a sleek jet craft from the roll-away ladder at Lowell Harbor. Randy and Ted found a double seat together, and Jill sat with a girl friend. When all the passengers were in, Mr. Garland said that they could remove their space helmets.
 
When all were seated, they waved to their parents and relatives who stood on the ground.
 
“I’m as excited as if I’d never made a trip like this!” Randy said.
 
“I’m excited too!” Ted admitted. He didn’t add that he had scarcely slept the night before because he was in such a dither of anticipation.
 
Mr. Garland told the children to fasten their safety belts, as they were almost ready to take off. In a few minutes they felt the ship moving beneath them. Ted waved a final farewell to his parents and Mr. Matthews, for he had a seat beside the window. When they waved back, Ted felt a little uneasy. It was the first time he had ever been away from his folks. He wondered fearfully if something would happen on the flight so that he would never see them again.
 
205
Swiftly the rocket plane picked up speed. Then, with a whoosh of jets, it launched itself into the air.
 
“We’re off!” one of the boys shouted gaily.
 
Soon Lowell Harbor was only a small circle in the red desert behind them, and the vast stretches of wilderness began to come into view. Mr. Garland pointed out the important natural formations as they cruised along. By now almost all of Mars had been accurately mapped. There were miles and miles of wind-ribbed sand dunes with rows of furrows like a farmer’s carefully seeded fields.
 
Ted had never before realized the wonder of the canals until he saw them from this height. They were straight as arrows, and some were tremendous in size, even dwarfing the majesty of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. It caused him to wonder again about those very accomplished engineers of the ancient past who had built them and had since so mysteriously disappeared.
 
206
Ted recognized much of the landscape from their geography study. Some of the ocher-red deserts and forests had been named far back in the past before the twenty-first century. They passed over the great oasis of Solis Lacus and the dense woodland of Mare Sirenum. But always there were canals, and more canals, draining the great icecaps and supplying the entire planet.
 
“Isn’t the sky pretty?” Jill said to Ted and Randy who were sitting behind her. “It seems we’re closer to the stars when we’re off the ground.”
 
Ted had to agree with her. The heavens were a deep gorgeous violet, with the starlight pulsing softly through. They traced the slow movement of Phobos, the timeteller, and they could also pick out the distant tiny moon............