 Why does Evans give up his drinking water?
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Like when there's no use trying—when it's time to give up because it's hopeless.... The meteor, a pebble, a little larger than a match head, traveled through space and time since it came into being. The light from the star that died when the meteor was created fell on Earth before the first lungfish ventured from the sea. In its last instant, the meteor fell on the Moon. Portions of the turbine also volitized; idling at eight thousand RPM, it became unstable. The shaft tried to tie itself into a knot, and the blades, damaged and undamaged were spit through the casing. It was two days to sunrise, where Evans stood. It was just before sunset on a spring evening in September in Sydney. The shadow line between day and night could be seen from the Moon to be drifting across Australia. Evans, who had no watch, thought of the time as a quarter after Australia. Evans was a prospector, and like all prospectors, a sort of jackknife geologist, selenologist, rather. Once he followed a stampede to Yellow Crater, where he thought for a while that he had a fortune in chromium. The chromite petered out in a month and a half, and he was lucky to break even. Evans was about three hundred miles east of Williamson Town, the site of the first landing on the Moon. Evans was due back at Williamson Town at about sunset, that is, in about sixteen days. His drinking water—kept separate from the water in the reactor—might conceivably last just as long. But his oxygen was too carefully measured; there was a four-day reserve. Four days reserve—plus one is five—plus sixteen days normal supply equals twenty-one days to live. "Well, man, 'tis a fine spot you're in now," he told himself. "Batteries must be dead," he told himself.
 Using the water is the only way for his transportation to work
 Using the water is the only way for his transportation to work  He knows he will be able to find more soon in one of the caves  He knows his rescuers will come find him and bring water  He knows he does not have enough to survive so he uses it to save his equipment