When Lodar heard of this he shook his head and guffawed.
"You're too easy, Burk. Perhaps Campora can do better."
"She'll come to her senses in time," Ray urged. Above all, he didn't want Campora turned loose on the girl. "Give me time."
"Yea." Lodar's smile was grimly mocking. "In time she'll make a complete sucker of you! But it might be diverting. Go ahead!"
III
The very vastness of space lends a sense of security from detection. The enormous speed required to cover the parsecs between systems gives advantage to those who elude the patrols.
The Vulcan, bound for Earth, streaked through the blackness like a swift needle in illimitable space. Its sensitive detector beams probed the spangled cosmos for danger.
Inside, the crews changed shift and slept, lulled by the warm hum of converters. It was a secure little world of glittering lights and steel, no different from the many Company ships which Ray had flown in the past.
He was standing in the warm hold, staring through the bars at the Mutes. Their large eyes turned to his, but there was no other sign of awareness, life. They were delicately built, almost like children. No wonder they made appealing pets, semi-slaves.