Feeling his way along the dark corridors, Farradyne made his way aloft, up the stairways and around the circular floors until he came upon the one door with a streak of light coming underneath it. The light helped him see; the door was secured with a single bolt of the sliding variety, easy to open from the outside but impossible to move from within.
Farradyne slid the bolt and pushed open the door.
Norma was standing inside, poised defiantly with her hands on her hips, waiting. For a moment she did not recognize him, then her face twisted and said, "Well! If it isn't our interstellar man-about-space, Charles Farradyne!"
18
"Now see here," he said shortly, "Clevis must have told you about me."
"I knew that you and Clevis had something cooked up together the first time I saw him come into the Lancaster without a blazing gun in each hand," she said sourly.
"Well, then you ought to know that I'm—"
"You're a damned idiot, Farradyne! You bumbling fool!"
"But look, I'm here—"