Tom worked his big knuckled long fingers together. "Maybe it won't amount to anything. The brass will just put you on another ship."
"Not if he puts in that report," Willie said, his voice muffled against the wall.
Tom sat there. There was nothing more to say. Willie was right. "Well, I'll see you on the morning." He got up. "Maybe we can go for a hike or something." When Willie didn't answer, he went out and carefully shut the door behind him.
In his own bunk, he tried to think of something else, but the problem of Willie bothered him for a long, restless time. Then it was morning and the clock was chiming.
Pudge came in to the table where Tom and Bart were waiting for breakfast. "Some one's been in the stores. A couple of cases of emergency rations are missing. It must have been in the night."
"What the hell," Bart said, jumping up. "In the stores?"
"Where's Willie?" Tom said, getting up.
"Who cares," Bart said. "There's no one on this planet but us. Who'd get into our stores? Or what?"
"That's what I mean," Tom said angrily. "Where's Willie?"
Bart gave him a startled glance, then led the way to Willie's cabin. He wasn't there. They went through the ship. They dropped out of the lock, one after the other, into the blinding sunlight and looked around. Willie was gone.