They shook hands briefly and Thorndyke strode away. En route, however, he paused beside the quartermaster and signaled to him to disconnect his communicator.
"Clever lad, Allerdyce!" Thorndyke whispered, with a grin. "Kinda loaded the dice a trifle once or twice, didn't you? I don't think anybody but me smelled a rat, though. Certainly neither the skipper nor Henderson did, or you'd 've had it to do over again."
"At least one team has got to get through," the quartermaster replied, quietly and obliquely, "and the strongest teams we can muster will find the going none too easy. Any team made up of strength and weakness is a weak team. Captain Kinnison, our only Lensman, is, of course, the best man aboard this buzz buggy. Who would you pick for No. 2?"
"VanBuskirk, of course, the same as you did. I wasn't criticizing you, man, I was complimenting you; and thanking you, in a roundabout way, for giving me Henderson. He's got plenty of what it takes, too."
"It wasn't 'VanBuskirk, of course,' by any means," the quartermaster rejoined. "It's mighty hard to figure either you or Henderson third, to say nothing of fourth, in any kind of company, however fast—mentally or physically. However, it seemed to me that you fitted in better with the pilot. I could hand pick only two teams without getting caught at it—you spotted me as it was—but I think that I picked the two strongest teams possible. At least one of you will get through, for all the tea there is in China. If none of you four can make it, nobody could."
"Well, here's hoping, anyway. Thanks again. See you again sometime, maybe. Clear ether!"
Chief Pilot Henderson had, a few minutes since, changed the course of the cruiser from right-line flight to fantastic, zigzag leaps through space, and now he turned frowningly to Kinnison.
"We'd better begin dumping them out pretty soon now, I think," he suggested. "We haven't detected anything yet, but according to the figures it won't be long now; and after they get their traps set we'll run out of time mighty quick."
"Right."
And then, one after another, but even so several light years apart in space, eighteen of the small boats were launched into the void. In the control room there were left only Henderson and Thorndyke with VanBuskirk and Kinnison, who were to be the last to leave.