Four-Day Planet

a needle inside a concrete mixer. We submerged after the ship and went in underwater. Then we had to wait in the boat until the ship rose above the surface and emptied the water ou

rns washing up, three at a time, in the little ship's latrine which, for some reason going back to sailing-ship days on Terra, w

everybody had a plate or bowl of hot food. There's always plenty of hot food to hand on a hunter-ship; no regular meal-times, and everybody eats, as he sleeps, when he has tim

he wax we had in the hold, and counting the money they we

s it went into the hold, said. He figured mentally for a moment, and added, "Call it tw

at he was reckoning shares

that?" I whispered to Murell. "W

he said. "These people nee

ut the outside money he picks up. It wouldn't do any harm in the present instance, but as a practice it can lead to all kinds of things, like playing favorites, coloring news, killing stories that shouldn't be kill

ts," I said. "We

a prettier shot on a monster than Walt made-took that thing's head off like a chicken on a chopping block-and he did a swell job of co

port," I said. "Are we going right back, o

e didn't get too much, but if we stay out, we'll have

ll cost," Abdullah Monnahan, the engineer, sa

get back," Joe Kivelson said. "I want

opened, and get into business. What time will the Cape Cana

spaceships always try to miss the early-dark and early-dayl

at wax you have stored, and what I can get out of the Co-operative s

d. "Dodging bu

ble," Murell said. "This fel

ked like a recoiling gun, throwing everybody into a heap, and heeled over to starboard. There were a lot of yells, p

Kivelson told him, shoving himself to his fee

An instant later, he had slamme

room like a geyser," he said. "Ramón, go see what it's like in the boat berth. The rest of yo

doorway of the little galley when I came past, handing out cases of food. As nothing was coming out at the instant, I kept on, and on the way back to the boat-berth hatch, I pulled down as many par

through it and slid down after, getting out of the way of the load of boots Tom dumped ahead of him. Joe Kivelson came

es," he said, after he'd sealed the boat. "Th

Simon MacGregor's Claymore," I said,

detaching the harpoon and fitting on an explosive warhead. He stopped, whi

aid. "Everybody grab onto someth

e. The rocket whooshed out of the launcher and went off with a deafening bang outside. For an instant, nothing happened, and I told Murell not to let go. Then the lock burst in and the water

brought down from the ship along with the log, fussed a little with it, and then launched it out the disposal port. It was a radio locator. Sometimes a lucky ship will get more wax than the holds

with sixteen men aboard must have seemed sort of extreme to him. Maybe that w

e ship and a quarter of a cubic mile of water around her. No, that was

asked, rather

et along without both of you together." Everybody in the boat was listening, so I continue

could have planted somet

a while, the morning after the m

om mentioned. "And when he showed up, he hadn't been marked up any. I'd have though

is up when we get back,"

ewellyn told him. "That's

id. "It's a little crowded, but we

ord, the navigator, said.

s like on top," th

d for us. Monnahan tilted the boat almost vertical and put on everything the engines ha

was considerable bad language, and several of the crew had bloody noses. Monnahan tried to get the boat turned into the wind. A circuit breaker popped, and red lights blazed a

alm again. "We'll have to stay under till the wind's over. Don't anybody move

ped with electrolytic

or a maximum of six men.

air last, for sixte

eight

ndor, running submerged. The wind wouldn

n Reuch's Land," Abe Clifford, the navig

ack to the back of the pilot's seat, under the light. Everybody watc

that pipe and I'l

ut of his mouth with one hand and

s I just wasn't th

e drawer under the charts. "Now you won't h

at we're somewhere around South 30 Latitude. The locator signal is almost exactly north-by-northeast of us. If we keep it dead astern, we'll come out in Sancerre Bay, on Hermann Reuch's La

huddle, arguing about cruising speed subm

re oxygen out of the gills than we're getting now. We'll just have to use less. Everybody lie down and breathe as

ndred miles. Hunter-ships don't crowd that close together when they're working. Still, there was a chance that somebody else might be sitting it out on the

now in scout boat, proceeding toward Sancerre Bay, on course south-by-southwest from the wreck. Locator signal is

except for an occasional frying-fat cra

gan praying, and somebody else told him to belay it, he was wasting oxygen. I tried to go to sleep, which was t

yday, Mayda