take? I have ten
married men aboard. Six have children. Can you take six? Or all ten?_"
Then he said without a trace of emphasis, "_Of course, none of them will
be officers._"

"If I tried to turn back now, I think my crew would mutiny," Joe said
coldly. "I'd hate to think they wouldn't, anyhow! We're going to hook on
and play this out the way it lies!"

There was a pause. Then Brown spoke again. "_Mr. Kenmore, I was
hoping you'd say that. Actually--er--not to be quoted, you
understand--actually, intelligent defiance has always been in the
traditions of the Navy. Of course, you're not in the Navy, Kenmore, but
right now it looks like the Navy is in your hands. Like a battleship in
the hands of a tug. Good luck, Kenmore._"

Joe flicked off the screen. "You know," he said, winking at Mike, "I
guess Brown isn't such a bad egg after all. Let's go!"

In minutes, the space tug had a line made fast. In half an hour, the two
space craft were bound firmly together, but far enough apart for the
rocket blasts to dissipate before they reached the Moonship. Mike
returned to the tug. A pair of the big Mark Twenty rockets burned
frenziedly in emptiness.

The Moonship was slowed by a fraction of its speed. The deceleration was
hardly perceptible.

There were more burnings. Back on Earth there were careful measurements.
A tight beam tends to attenuate when it is thrown a hundred thousand
miles. It tends to! When speech is conducted over it, the lag between
comment and reply is perceptible. It's not great--just over half a
second. But one notices it. That lag was used to measure the speed and
distance of the two craft. The prospect didn't look too good.

The space tug burned rocket after rocket after rocket. There was no
effect that Joe could detect, of course. It would have been like
noticing the effect of single oar-strokes in a rowboat miles from shore.
But the instruments on Earth found a difference. They made very, very,
very careful computations. And the electronic brains did the
calculations which battalions of mathematicians would have needed years
to work out. The electronic calculations which could not make a mistake
said--that it was a toss-up.

The Moon came slowly to float before the two linked ships. It grew
slowly, slowly larger. The word from Earth was that considering the
rockets still available in the space tug, and those that should have
been fired but weren't on the Moonship, there must be no more blasts
ju