"Oh, Gaylord!" breathed Luverduk asthmatically. "Oh, oh, oh...." The length of the corridor down which he waddled swallowed up the gibberish that whispered in his wake.
Thirty minutes to the second later, just as Kram was putting the finishing touches on the thing which he had estimated would take him precisely 30 minutes to rig, Luverduk returned.
"Gaylord!"
"I have something to show you, Major Luverduk. Come here." Kram gestured toward the outside door of the large office which led through a space-cruiser hangar and out to the experimental detonation range where new weapons received their first tests in the half-scale stage.
"Show me! Good Lord, Gaylord! Hoskins read it right there in front of me! He said for you to get to his headquarters as fast as you can double-time it! Sore! It was more or less nice knowing you, Lance-corporal Kram!"
"I knew he'd be a little silly about it at first."
"He said if you're not in his office in 15 minutes, he's coming to yours with his whole damned guard!"
"Might, come to think of it. Come here, Luverduk."
"But—"