get deadly bored if we were stuck in a derelict waiting for our air
and food to give out."

Murgatroyd, for no reason whatever, felt it necessary to enter the
conversation:

"_Chee-chee-chee!_"

"A very sensible suggestion," observed Calhoun. "We'll sit down and
have a cup of coffee." To the girl he said, "I'll take you to Orede,
since that's where you say you want to go."

"I have a sweetheart there...."

Calhoun shook his head.

"No," he said reprovingly. "Nearly all the mining colony had packed
itself into the ship that came into Weald with everybody dead. But not
all. And there's been no check of what men were in the ship and what
men weren't. You wouldn't go to Orede if it were likely your
sweetheart had died on the way to you. Here's your coffee. Sugar or
saccho, and do you take cream?"

She trembled a little, but she took the cup.

"I don't understand."

"Murgatroyd and I," explained Calhoun--and he did not know whether he
spoke out of anger or something else--"we are do-gooders. We go around
trying to keep people from getting sick or dying. Sometimes we even