"Just a couple of hours ago," said Gary. "It will take them days to get here.”
"We'll be gone long before they even sight Pluto," Tommy said, his words mumbled through a huge bite of sandwich.
"That's right," agreed Kingsley, "but it makes me sore. The damn government always meddling in other people's affairs. Setting itself up as a judge and jury. Figuring it never can be wrong." He growled wickedly at the sandwich he held in one mighty fist, bit at it viciously.
Herb looked around the room. "This being sort of a farewell banquet," he said, "I sure wish we had something to drink. We ought to drink a toast to the Solar System before we leave it. We ought to make it just a little like a celebration.”
"We'd have something to drink if you hadn't been so clumsy with that Scotch," Gary reminded him.
"Hell," retorted Herb, "that would have been gone long ago, with you making a pass at it every time you came in reach." He sighed and tilted his coffee cup against his face.
Kingsley's laugh thundered through the room. "Wait a minute, boys," he said. He went to a cupboard and removed a double row of canned vegetables from a shelf. A quart bottle filled with amber liquor was revealed. He set it on the table.
"Wash out your coffee cups," he said. "We haven't any glasses.”
The liquor splashed into the coffee cups and they stood to drink a toast.
The telephone in the next room rang.