few primitive meters, Herr Syrup corrected that tendency with side jets.
Blowing white beer fumes in all directions, the messenger boat moved slowly along a wobbling spiral toward New Winchester.
CHAPTER TEN
‘Oh darling, dearest, beloved,’ wept Emily, dabbing at Rory McConnell’s head, ‘forgive me!’
‘I love yez too,’ said the Erseman, sitting up, ‘but unliss ye’ll stop poundin’ in me skull I’ll have to lock yez up for the duration.’
‘I promise … I promise … oh, I couldn’t bear it! Sweetheart—’ Emily clutched his arm as he rose – ‘can’t you let them go now? I mean, they’ve gotten clean away, you’ve lost, so why don’t we wait here and, well, I mean to say, really.’
‘What do you mean to say?’
Emily blushed and lowered her eyes. ‘If you don’t know,’ she said in a prim voice, ‘I shall certainly not tell you.’
McConnell blushed too.
Then, resolutely, he started toward the bridge. The girl hurried after him. He flung back: ‘Tell me what it is they’re escapin’ in, an’ maybe I’ll be ready to concede hon’rable defeat.’ But having been informed, he only barked a laugh and said, ‘Well, an’ ’tis a gallant try, ’tis, but me with a regular spaceship at me beck can’t admit the end of the game. In fact, me dear, I’m sorry to say they haven’t a Plutonian’s chance in hell.’
By that time he was in the turret, sweeping the skies with its telescope. It took him a while to find the boat, already it was a mere speck in the gleaming dark. He scowled, chewedhis lip, and muttered half to himself:
‘’Twill take time to extract the polarity reverser, an’ me not a trained engineer. By then the craft will be indeed hard to locate. If I went on down to Grendel to get help, ’twould take hours to reach the ear of himself an’ assimble a crew, if I know me Erse lads. An’ hours is too long. So – I’ll have to go after our friends there alone. Acushla, I don’t think ye’ll betray their cause if ye fix me a sandwich or six an’ open me a bottle of beer whilst I work.’
McConnell did, in fact, require almost an hour to get the geegee repulsors to repulsing again. With the compensator still on the fritz, that put the ship’s interior back in free fall state. He floated, dashing the sweat from his brow, and smiled at Emily. ‘Go strap yourself in, me rose of Grendel, for I may well have to make some sharp maneuvers an’ I wouldn’t be bruisin’ of that fair skin – Damn! Git away!’ That was addressed to the sweat he had just dashed from his brow. Swatting blindly at the fog of tiny globules, he pushed one leg against a wall and arrowed out the door.
Up in the turret again, harnessed in his seat before the pilot console, he tickled its control and heard the engines purr. ‘Are ye ready, darlin’?’ he called into the intercom.
‘Not yet, sweetheart,’ Emily’s voice floated back. ‘One moment, please.’
‘A moment only,’ warned McConnell, squinting into the telescope. He could not have found the fleeing boat at all were it not for the temporary condensation of beer vapor into a cloud as expansion chilled it. And all he saw was a tiny, ghostly nebula on the very edge of vision. To be sure, knowing approximately what path the fugitives must follow gave him a track; he could doubtless always come within a hundred kilometers of them that way; but—
‘Are ye ready, me sugar?’
‘Not yet, love. I’ll be with you in a jiffy.’
McConnell drummed impatient fingers on the console. The
Mercury Girl
swung gently around Grendel. His head still throbbed.
‘Da-a-arlin’! Time’s a-wastin’! We’ll be late!’
‘Oh, give me just a sec. Really, dearest, you might remember when we’re married and have to go out someplace a girl wants to look her best, and that takes time, I mean dresses and cosmetics and so on aren’t classical but I guess if I can give up my principles for you so you can be proud of me and if I can eat
Blowing white beer fumes in all directions, the messenger boat moved slowly along a wobbling spiral toward New Winchester.
CHAPTER TEN
‘Oh darling, dearest, beloved,’ wept Emily, dabbing at Rory McConnell’s head, ‘forgive me!’
‘I love yez too,’ said the Erseman, sitting up, ‘but unliss ye’ll stop poundin’ in me skull I’ll have to lock yez up for the duration.’
‘I promise … I promise … oh, I couldn’t bear it! Sweetheart—’ Emily clutched his arm as he rose – ‘can’t you let them go now? I mean, they’ve gotten clean away, you’ve lost, so why don’t we wait here and, well, I mean to say, really.’
‘What do you mean to say?’
Emily blushed and lowered her eyes. ‘If you don’t know,’ she said in a prim voice, ‘I shall certainly not tell you.’
McConnell blushed too.
Then, resolutely, he started toward the bridge. The girl hurried after him. He flung back: ‘Tell me what it is they’re escapin’ in, an’ maybe I’ll be ready to concede hon’rable defeat.’ But having been informed, he only barked a laugh and said, ‘Well, an’ ’tis a gallant try, ’tis, but me with a regular spaceship at me beck can’t admit the end of the game. In fact, me dear, I’m sorry to say they haven’t a Plutonian’s chance in hell.’
By that time he was in the turret, sweeping the skies with its telescope. It took him a while to find the boat, already it was a mere speck in the gleaming dark. He scowled, chewedhis lip, and muttered half to himself:
‘’Twill take time to extract the polarity reverser, an’ me not a trained engineer. By then the craft will be indeed hard to locate. If I went on down to Grendel to get help, ’twould take hours to reach the ear of himself an’ assimble a crew, if I know me Erse lads. An’ hours is too long. So – I’ll have to go after our friends there alone. Acushla, I don’t think ye’ll betray their cause if ye fix me a sandwich or six an’ open me a bottle of beer whilst I work.’
McConnell did, in fact, require almost an hour to get the geegee repulsors to repulsing again. With the compensator still on the fritz, that put the ship’s interior back in free fall state. He floated, dashing the sweat from his brow, and smiled at Emily. ‘Go strap yourself in, me rose of Grendel, for I may well have to make some sharp maneuvers an’ I wouldn’t be bruisin’ of that fair skin – Damn! Git away!’ That was addressed to the sweat he had just dashed from his brow. Swatting blindly at the fog of tiny globules, he pushed one leg against a wall and arrowed out the door.
Up in the turret again, harnessed in his seat before the pilot console, he tickled its control and heard the engines purr. ‘Are ye ready, darlin’?’ he called into the intercom.
‘Not yet, sweetheart,’ Emily’s voice floated back. ‘One moment, please.’
‘A moment only,’ warned McConnell, squinting into the telescope. He could not have found the fleeing boat at all were it not for the temporary condensation of beer vapor into a cloud as expansion chilled it. And all he saw was a tiny, ghostly nebula on the very edge of vision. To be sure, knowing approximately what path the fugitives must follow gave him a track; he could doubtless always come within a hundred kilometers of them that way; but—
‘Are ye ready, me sugar?’
‘Not yet, love. I’ll be with you in a jiffy.’
McConnell drummed impatient fingers on the console. The
Mercury Girl
swung gently around Grendel. His head still throbbed.
‘Da-a-arlin’! Time’s a-wastin’! We’ll be late!’
‘Oh, give me just a sec. Really, dearest, you might remember when we’re married and have to go out someplace a girl wants to look her best, and that takes time, I mean dresses and cosmetics and so on aren’t classical but I guess if I can give up my principles for you so you can be proud of me and if I can eat
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