“We can talk that over later,” Rock answered. “Now we’ve got to decide how we’re going to split expenses with Kalmus.”
The boys had accumulated tidy sums while working at the space station. Even Rock had a fair amount of savings despite the fact that he sent much of his monthly check home to his mother. Space pay was high, and the boys had had no place to spend their money. But of course it cost a lot of money to take a ship out into space. The boys figured that the best they could do would not be quite enough. Rock told them that he had an idea Kalmus would advance them some on their share. It was likely that he wouldn’t have come this far without being sure the trip could be financed.
Rock next told them about Kalmus wanting to furnish most of the crew.
“If all of us go,” said little Sparky Finn, with the bristly hair, “then Kalmus will have to limit the men he wants to take. It’s a simple matter of arithmetic—seven of us and four of them.”
“I’ll tell him that,” Rock agreed. “We all go or none of us goes. I’ll insist on it.”
“Do you reckon we can trust Kalmus?” Ed Somerton asked.
“He looks all right to me,” Shep said, “although of course you can’t trust first impressions sometimes.”
“He looks all right to me too,” Rock agreed. “But just the same, while we’re waiting to get the ship outfitted, I think I’ll check his references at central identification headquarters on Earth.”
Just as they were going to break up, there came a sharp rap on the dormitory door. Before the visitor could be invited in, he flung the door open and strode inside.
Rock flared at this invasion of their privacy, especially when the newcomer proved to be a person disliked by all of them. He was Carl Mugger, their immediate supervisor. Behind his back he was known as “Yap” because of his shrewish tongue.