They slanted cautiously up the shale, squeezed under an overhang at the top, and stepped out on a hard slaty floor. The room was open on one side and fairly long and deep, but it squeezed in to a waist high crawl space; only at the edge was there room to stand up. Jack grabbed some gravel, threw it into the dark hole, waited with knife ready. “Nobody home, I guess.” They dropped to hands and knees, crawled inside. “How do you like it?”
“It’s swell . . . provided we stand watches. Something could come up the way we did. You’ve been lucky.”
“Maybe.” Jack felt around in the gloom, dragged out dry branches of thorn bush, blocked the pathway, jamming them under the overhang. “That’s my alarm.”
“It wouldn’t stop anything that got a whiff of you and really wanted to come in.”
“No. But I would wake up and let it have some rocks in the face. I keep a stack over there. I’ve got a couple of scare flares, too.”
“I thought Didn’t you say you had a gun?”
“I didn’t say, but I do. But I don’t believe in shooting when you can’t see.”
“It looks all right. In fact it looks good, I guess I did myself a favor when I teamed with you.” Rod looked around. “You’ve had a fire!”
“I’ve risked it a couple of times, in daylight. I get so tired of raw meat.”
Rod sighed deeply. “I know. Say, do you suppose?”
“It’s almost dark. I’ve never lighted one when it could show. How about roast liver for breakfast, instead? With salt?”
Rod’s mouth watered. “You’re right, Jack. I do want to get a drink before it is too dark, though. How about coming along and we cover each other?”
“No need. There’s a skin back there. Help yourself.”
Rod congratulated himself on having teamed with a perfect housekeeper. The skin was of a small animal, not identifiable when distended with water. Jack had scraped the hide but it was uncured and decidedly unsavory. Rod was not aware that the water tasted bad; he drank deeply, wiped his mouth with his hand and delt at peace.
They did not sleep at once, but sat in the dark and compared notes. Jack’s class had come through one day earlier, but with the same instructions. Jack agreed that recall was long overdue.
“I suppose I missed it while I was off my head,” Rod commented. “I don’t know how long I was foggy. . . I guess I didn’t miss dying by much.”
“That’s not it, Rod.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve been okay and keeping track of the time. There never was any recall.”
“You’re sure?”
“How could I miss? The siren can be heard for twenty kilometers, they use a smoke flare by day and a searchlight at night, and the law says they have to keep it up at least a week unless everybody returns. . . which certainly did not happen this time.”
“Maybe we are out of range. Matter of fact well, I don’t know about you, but I’m lost. I admit it”
“I’m not. I’m about four kilometers from where they let my class through; I could show you the spot. Rod, let’s face it; something has gone wrong. There is no way of telling how long we are going to be here.” Jack added quiefly, “That’s why I thought it was a good idea to team.”
Rod chewed it over, decided it was time to haul out his theory. “Me, too.”
“Yes. Solo is actually safer, for a few days. But if we are stuck here indefinitely, then”
“Not what I meant, Jack.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know what planet this is?”
“No. I’ve thought about it, of course. It has to be one of the new list and it is compatible with”
“I know what one it is.”
“Huh? Which one?”
“It’s Earth. Terra herself.”
There was a long silence. At last Jack said, “Rod, are you all right? Are you still feverish?”
“I’m fine, now that I’ve got a full belly and a big drink of water. Look, Jack, I know it sounds silly, but you just listen and I’ll add it up. We’re on Earth and I think I know about where, too. I don’t think they meant to sound recall; they meant us to figure out where we are and walk out. It’s a twist Deacon Matson would love.”