behind it.

"Hello, Sanford. You came out? Was it wise? Shouldn't there be someone
inside the Platform?"

Sanford laughed again. "It was very wise. We're going to be killed, as
you fellows know perfectly well. It's futile to try to avoid it. So very
sensibly I've decided to spare myself the nuisance of waiting to be
killed. I came out."

There was silence in the ear-phones of Joe's space suit radio. He heard
his own heart beating loudly and steadily in the absolute stillness.

"Incidentally," said Sanford with almost hysterical amusement, "I fixed
it so that none of us can get back in. It would be useless, anyhow.
Everything's futility. So I've put an end to our troubles for good. I've
locked us all out."

He laughed yet again. And Joe knew that in Sanford's madness it was
perfectly possible for him to have done exactly what he said.

There were eight human beings on the Platform. All were now outside it,
on its outer skin. They wore space suits with from half an hour to an
hour's oxygen supply. They had no tools with which to break back into
the satellite. And no help could possibly reach them in less than three
weeks.

If they couldn't get back inside the Platform, Sanford, laughing
proudly, had killed them all.