The rest of the trip was uneventful. Farradyne was asked periodically about Hughes' condition and he replied carefully and cheerfully, once going so far as to remark with a slightly bitter laugh, "Hughes will probably feel fit as a fiddle by the time I get back to Terra, and he'll then hate me for lugging him home. But we couldn't leave him on Pluto with that coryosis, could we?"
Since none of them cared to have a man coughing and sneezing in their midst, they all agreed solemnly.
Then, inevitably, the trip wore to a close. Pluto loomed large in the sky, and Farradyne went below to see Hughes-Brenner about an hour before they were due to land.
11
Farradyne found Brenner awake but logy. "How do you feel?" he asked Brenner.
"I feel dopy," admitted Brenner dully.
"Good. You've been a very sick man, Brenner. Or should I call you Hughes? Which is your name?"
"What difference can it make?"
"I like to know these things," said Farradyne. "I seem to collect a lot of information, one way and another, and I admit a lot of it is useless, but I find it interesting. For instance, Brenner, can you make that triple-tongued sound?"