He had braced the Captain up into a
half-sitting position and was patiently ladling the liquid into his
mouth a spoonful at a time when a thin squeak drew his attention to the
top of Jellico's desk.
From the half open lid of a microtape compartment something long and dark
projected, beating the air feebly. Dane, easing the Captain back on the
bunk, was going to investigate when the Hoobat broke its unnatural quiet
of the past few days with an ear-splitting screech of fury. Dane struck
at the bottom of its cage--the move its master always used to silence
it--But this time the results were spectacular.
The cage bounced up and down on the spring which secured it to the
ceiling of the cabin and the blue feathered horror slammed against the
wires. Either its clawing had weakened them, or some fault had developed,
for they parted and the Hoobat came through them to land with a sullen
plop on the desk. Its screams stopped as suddenly as they had begun and
it scuttled on its spider-toad legs to the microtape compartment, acting
with purposeful dispatch and paying no attention to Dane.
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