"I was just telling them that. There's no ship due for two days."

"You actually told a falsehood?" Morna gasped.

Ranjit said, "When you get to be my age, you'll find you can do lots of things they didn't teach in school. How'd you clinch up with two fellows like them, Henry? They're space happy, both of them. Didn't you have no education?"

"Not much," Henry said. "Me and my parents were shipwrecked in the Asteroids when I was only ten. Mother tried to teach me Honesty, and Morality, and all the rest, but it didn't take very well. We were there eight years before we were picked up. They put me in school, then, with a bunch of kids. I didn't like it, so I skipped and worked in the mines on Titan. Then I got mixed up with Vicenzo and Aziz. This is the first job I've pulled with them."

"At least you changed your mind and tried to stop it," Ranjit said, tugging at his bonds.

"The snips!" Henry exclaimed. "There's a pair of snips in my side pocket. Maybe you can reach them, Ranjit, if I—No, they're on the wrong side. Morna, will you try to get them if I can put my, uh, pocket next to your hand?"

"Stay away from me," Morna said.

"You've got to." Henry braced his feet against the deck and pushed, bending his knees as his weightless body flew into the air. He twisted, and the side of his left leg struck the ceiling. Shoving with his toe, he forced his contorted body back toward the pipe. "There!" he grunted. "Can you reach them?"

Morna said, "I don't know. My wrists are tied so tight." Her hand touched Henry's hip and sent him swinging in the opposite direction. His legs stopped across Ranjit's chest. The old man lowered his head and butted Henry back toward Morna.

"Oh, get out of my face!" Morna complained.

Henry lay against the ceiling with his legs bent, his back bowed, and his left elbow pressed against his lower ribs. Morna's hand fluttered at his pocket. "I've got—No, it's a screwdriver," she said. "Now, I've got the snips!"

"Don't drop them," Henry pleaded. He thrust his feet back to the deck. "Try to cut the line around my wrist. Ow! That's my hand!"

"Be brave!" Morna jeered nervously. "Now it's under the cord. I cut one!"

Henry twisted his wrist in the 

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