I, knowing my daughter, asked if they had looked in the secluded spots in the school itself, or right next to the building. Quite possibly she

They answered that the city had no cellars, all the potentially secluded spots had been searched by the school children and the students at the Martian University who knew them all by heart.

I was very angry with Alice. Just about now I expected her to emerge from some corner or hole with the most innocent look on her face. But her behavior had inflicted enormous bother and cost, worse than a bad sand storm. All the Martians, and all the Earthmen living in the city had been torn from their own affairs and business, and set out on foot to join the rescue service. At the same time I was terribly worried. This little adventure of hers could end terribly badly.

News from the search parties was flowing in constantly.

“Third Martian Technical School students report they have search the stadium. No Alice.” “MarsSweets candy factory reports no child found on our property.”

“Is it possible that she managed to get out into the desert?” I mused. In the city, they would have certainly found her by now. The Martian deserts are still not well explored, and one could get lost there so throughly they would not find you in ten years’ searching. But the closest regions of the desert had already been searched by people in walkers.

“They found her!” A Martian in a blue tunic shouted; he was looking at his pocket-com.

“Where? How? Where?” Everyone under the dome shouted in excitement.

“In the desert. Some two hundred kilometers from here.”

“Two hundred?!”

Of course. I thought. They don’t know Alice. Something entirely expected…

“The child is all right and will be here soon.”

“And just how did she get out there?”

“In a postal rocket.”

“Of course!” Tatiana Petronva said and started to cry uncontrollably. She had endured far more than anyone else. Everyone ran to console her.