"What do you mean, 'Why not?'"
"I'm willing to earn my passage. What if there are four of you?"
For a long moment, Dudley discovered things about himself, with the sudden realization that the idea appealed to some suppressed part of his mind. He had never kidded himself about being a saint. The thing had possibilities. Maybe one of the others can be talked into restraint into her.
He snapped out of it. "Don't be a little fool!" he grated. "If you want my advice, you'll—."
"Well, I don't want your goddam advice! If you're too yellow to try it, I'll find somebody else. There'll be another rocket after yours, you know. Maybe they'll have a man on it!"
He felt his face go white and then flush as he stared at her. He did not know what to say. She looked like a child, but the outburst was more than a mere tantrum.
Sounds as if she's never been crossed before, he thought. I ought to haul off and slap a little self-restraint into her.
Instead, he beckoned to the three men, who had been edging closer with aggrieved expressions.
"How about taking your girl friend along?" he said flatly.
One of them took her by the elbow and tried to murmur something in her ear, but Kathi shook him off.