"You
don't look like desperate criminals," was his comment. "This your full
crew?"
"All the rest are your concern. That is--if you will take the job--"
Rip's shoulders slumped a little.
"You haven't left me much choice, have you? If there is illness on board,
I'm under the Oath--whether you are Patrol Posted or not. What's the
trouble?"
They got him down to Tau's laboratory and told him their story. From a
slight incredulity his expression changed to an alert interest and he
demanded to see, first the patients and then the pests now immured in a
deep freeze. Sometime in the middle of this, Dane, overcome by fatigue
which was partly relief from tension, sought his cabin and the bunk from
which he wearily disposed Sinbad, only to have the purring cat crawl back
once more when he had lain down.
And when he awoke, renewed in body and spirit, it was in a new Queen, a
ship in which hope and confidence now ruled.
"Hovan's already got it!" Rip told him exultantly. "It's that poison from
the little devils' claws right enough! A narcotic--produces some of the
affects of deep sleep.
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