The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hanging by a Thread, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: Hanging by a Thread

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Douglas

Release Date: October 21, 2009 [EBook #30308]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction August 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.

HANGING BY A THREAD

By DAVID GORDON

_It's seldom that the fate of a shipful of men literally
hangs by a thread--but it's also seldom that a device, every
part of which has been thoroughly tested, won't work...._

Illustrated by Douglas

* * * * *

Jayjay Kelvin was sitting in the lounge of the interplanetary cargo
vessel _Persephone_, his feet propped up on the low table in front of
the couch, and his attention focused almost totally on the small book
he was reading. The lounge itself was cozily small; the _Persephone_
had not been designed as a passenger vessel, and the two passengers
she was carrying at the time had been taken on as an accommodation
rather than as a money-making proposition. On the other hand, the
_Persephone_ and other ships like her were the only method of getting
to where Jayjay Kelvin wanted to go; there were no regular passenger
runs to Pluto. It's hardly the vacation spot of the Solar System.

On the other side of the table, Jeffry Hull was working industriously
with pencil and paper. Jayjay kept his nose buried in his book--not
because he was deliberately slighting Hull, but because he was
genuinely interested in the book.

_"Now wait," said Masterson, looking thoughtfully at the footprints on
the floor of the cabin where Jed Hooker had died. "Jest take another
look at these prints, Charlie. Silver Bill Greer couldn'