He started to say something, then shook his head. "You'd probably enter that in the log, too, if I said it." He put out his cigarette thoughtfully. "Sam, on the way back I want you to look through that scanner. If we delay our trip back an hour, the orbits of the other planetoids will be about right, and that one should be, too. Then you can enter the fact that we both saw it. You think I'm space-simple. But you won't be able to doubt what you'll see with your own eyes."
I said evenly, "I've traveled this line for twelve years and I've had navigators before who saw mirages. You're just not emotionally stable, Horse."
"I'm not punchy, either," Horse said. "You can have my resignation right now, Sam."
"Resignation? That's a word I've forgotten, Horse. You'll be re-assigned when we return to base."
He lighted another cigarette and went back to his desk. And I wondered who we'd get to take his place. The schools hadn't had a Level-One navigator in six years and the only two graduates who met that specification were very happy on other runs. Maybe, he wasn't completely gone.... Maybe...? But that wasn't scientific thinking.
Horse said, "Ever read about the old trains on Earth, Sam?"
"Second-hand living," I quoted him. "That's what you called reading."
"All right. It's better than not living at all. Anyway, in those old days, people along the tracks used to wave at the passengers as the trains roared by, for no reason I can think of. At any rate, for no scientific reason. What happened to me was pretty much like that. Sort of romantic, wasn't it?"
"An earth-bound iron sluggard moving through cow pastures. Is that romantic to a man who's seen Jupiter?"
"No, I guess not," Horse said quietly. "Only to me, I guess."