"All right," he continued, "now that we understand each other, I'll get on with the business. Second-in-command to me will be Gus Wallace. Lieutenant Wallace!"
A roar of approval came over the loud-speaker.
"Third-in-command—Luther Simms! Lieutenant Simms!"
There was another roar of approval as the prisoners recognized the names of the men who had liberated them from the asteroid.
"Now, we'll handle this ship as if it were any other freighter. The following men will be in charge of departments!"
As Coxine read off the list of jobs and the men to handle them, there were yells of approval and disapproval for favorites and old enemies. When the list of names had been read, he turned away from the intercom and faced his lieutenants, Wallace and Simms.
"Well, skipper," boasted Wallace, "it looks like we're in business again!"
"Yeah," chimed in Simms. "In three hours we'll be on our own asteroid and we can start planning our first strike!"
Coxine's eyes narrowed into slits. "Get this, both of you!" he snapped. "What I said to those crawlers down below goes for you too. I'm the boss of this outfit and you don't even guess about what we're going to do, until I say so!"
"But, Bull—!" whined Wallace.