one-thousandths of a second late. It took two months to repair the damage so the rocket could be tried again. Then it worked perfectly. Everything might have been—should have been—almost certainly had been—foreseen. But the chance of trouble was certainly greatest in the cut-in and cut-out feature that was necessary if the X-21 was to make its flight successfully. "I'm sorry," Furness said elaborately, "that I was more concerned about meeting a situation that bothered the brass than guessing at questions you might raise. I told the general we'd be ready to take off. I'll tell him I was mistaken, that you're not ready." McCauley grew impatient. "Confound it, man!" he protested. "There are patrol ships taking position! The monitor stations will be alerted! There've been too many shoots called off or postponed! This one can't be postponed! I asked a question. You can't answer it. The answer would almost certainly be that there were plenty of cut-out trials. I withdraw the question. It's canceled! But it wasn't unreasonable to ask!" Furness bit his lip. "Just the same," Furness said sourly, "you're not satisfied that I said we'd be ready to go without asking you first. Look here! Would you rather have somebody else fly observer with you?" "I didn't suggest such a thing," said McCauley angrily, "and it's ridiculous to think of it. No! Forget the whole business!" "It looks to me as if you resent my action," Furness said stiffly. "I shouldn't have spoken for you without written authority. I'll try to remember, hereafter, that you're the pilot and I'm only the observer." McCauley controlled his temper with difficulty. "This is lunacy!" he said shortly. "The thing's settled. We take off at noon tomorrow. I'm told the ship will fly. I'm ordered to fly it. You're ordered to fly with me. That's that, so far as I'm concerned!" Furness said as stiffly as before: "That's quite all right with me too. I should tell you, though, that my wife wanted me to invite you for dinner tonight. The general was to be there too, for a private talk over the prospects and so on. And I've got a son who's been fairly jumping with excitement over the prospect of meeting Major McCauley, the first man ever to take off in a pure rocket and
Prev.
Back
Top