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Norton, Andre, 1912-2005

"Plague Ship"

But in a moment the cat was back, leaping up on Dane's knee.
He did not curl up, but rubbed against the young man's arm, finally
reaching up with a paw to touch Dane's chin, uttering one of the
soundless, mews which were his bid for attention.
"What's the matter, boy?" Dane fondled the cat's ears. "You haven't got
a headache--have you?" In that second a wild surmise came into his mind.
Sinbad had been planet-side on Sargol as much as he could, and on ship
board he was equally at home in all their cabins--could he be the carrier
of the disease?
A good idea--only if it were true, then logically the second victim
should have been Van, or Dane--whereas Sinbad lingered most of the time
in their cabins--not Kosti. The cat, as far as he knew, had never shown
any particular fondness for the jetman and certainly did not sleep in
Karl's quarters. No--that point did not fit. But he would mention it to
Tau--no use overlooking anything--no matter how wild.
It was the sequence of victims which puzzled them all. As far as Tau had
been able to discover Mura and Kosti had nothing much in common except
that they were crewmates on the same spacer.


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