"Put down your hands and start moving your legs. Get into those locks before the rest of them get here!"
Cappy's jaw worked up and down, but words did not come from his throat. Somehow he moved. He ran into the locks and a moment later he was at the controls.
"Let 'er go!" Terry said.
Cappy, still speechless, pressed the charger. The rockets roared. The machine lurched skyward and Mercury was left behind.
"What happened?" Cappy asked.
"I just remembered that when we were last carrying the guns we had the safety catches on. The catches are released with the thumb. Chomby couldn't do it! He couldn't have shot me, even though he wanted to. The safety catches are such a small piece of the flourobeam mechanism that we never think of them. Chomby didn't have a chance to read our minds about the safety catch until it was too late."
"Terry," Cappy said. "I'll take back everything I said about you being yellow. You've got guts! More than I have, Terry."
"Guts? Hell, Cappy, I was scared to death every second."