Rocket from Infinity by Lester del Rey Read Free Book Online Page B

around.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œMaybe Uncle Homer depended a lot on your father.”
    â€œYou’re not making sense. Father was wonderful. But he was…well, very impractical.”
    â€œYes, but from what I’ve heard he was also one of the best mining engineers in the Belt. He had both the knowledge and the instinct.”
    â€œThat was true,” Jane said proudly.
    â€œAnd yet he never came away with much wealth.”
    Jane frowned and turned her eyes to look through the two glass panels that separated them. “What are you driving at?”
    â€œI’ve also heard that your father was so honest he couldn’t cheat anybody if he’d wanted to, and sometimes people like that think everybody is as honest, too.”
    Jane’s eyes sparked dangerously. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying…”
    â€œI’m only pointing out a possibility based on things I’ve heard. The stories I’ve heard about things going wrong for your father every time he was on the verge of a real bonanza. Of course, it’s none of my business, but—”
    â€œThat’s exactly right, Mister Mason. It’s none of your business!”
    Pete raised a quick hand. “All right—all right. I apologize. I was out of line.”
    â€œYou certainly were! Release your grapples. I’ll get home by myself!”
    â€œOh, not that again. Why don’t you grow up and start controlling those childish tantrums? If I let go you’d start wallowing all over the Belt.”
    The truth of this had a dampening effect on Jane. She hesitated and Pete followed up his advantage.
    â€œTruce?”
    â€œAll right—truce.”
    Pete felt that he had the picture. Jane had adored her father. In her eyes he could have done no wrong of any description and now that he was gone she accepted as absolute truth all the explanations for failure he had ever given his family. Thus, her father’s belief that Uncle Homer was a loyal friend had become Jane’s belief also.
    In a strange, twisted way, Uncle Homer had become Jane’s father image.
    â€œI’ll not mention Uncle Homer again,” Pete said, “if you’ll tell me one thing.”
    â€œTell you what?”
    â€œDo you get any help at all from him?”
    He thought she was going to flare again, but she didn’t. Still, there was defiance in her voice as she said, “He tries. Uncle Homer tries very hard and one of these days he’ll hit his bonanza and then everything will be fine.”
    â€œThat’s great. So why are you worrying about your family? All you have to do is hang on.”
    â€œOh, will you shut up?”
    Pete turned his head away to hide a small grin. He felt he’d won something in his personality war with Jane Barry. He couldn’t figure out exactly what, though. And while he was mulling it over, a shape more symmetrical than an asteroid loomed in the light from the distant sun, and he said, “Look, there’s the Snapdragon .”
    Jane looked but had no comment, and Pete said, “Seeing you coming home this way—being towed—will probably scare your mother.”
    â€œNo. She’d be more scared if I came in end-over-end without a tow.”
    â€œThat’s logical.”
    Pete eased the two cars toward the starboard airlock of the Snapdragon. She was a tired old ship, a Class Five space freighter that limped along at speeds that were now minor, but which had been major fifty years earlier. She was limited to an inner-stellar orbit because the passengers in a ship of her class would have become very old while traveling a single light-year.
    While Jane was clearing the crippled monocar, Pete saw two small faces pressed against the quartz of the portholes on either side of the airlock. They would belong to Ellen and Colleen, Jane’s younger sisters, and they weren’t in the least panicked by the