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odded. "Those were our instruments?" "Yes." The doctor still held the whiskey bottle in a tight grip. "They sent them back," the captain said. * * * * * The doctor crashed the bottle hard against the desk top. "Ask it, Captain, for God's sake!!" The captain turned to face the doctor directly. "It was a man, a full grown man." The doctor sighed as if letting the pent-up steam of his heart escape. "Yes, it is a man. It breathes, it eats, it has all the attributes of a man. But it is not of our planet." "Its speech ..." the captain began. "That isn't speech, Captain," the doctor broke in, breaking in sharply, "It's only sound." The doctor stopped; he examined the label of his bottle of whiskey very carefully. A good brand of whiskey. "He seems quite happy in the storeroom. You know, Captain, what puzzled me at first? He can't read. He can't read anything, not even the instruments in that ship. In fact he shows no interest in his rocket at all." The captain sat down now. He sat at the desk and faced the doctor. "At least _they_ had the courage to send a man, not a mouse. Doctor, a man." The doctor stared at the captain, his hand squeezing and unsqueezing on the whiskey bottle. "A man who can't read his own instruments?" The doctor laughed. "Perhaps you too have failed to see the point? Like that stupid general who sits out there waiting for the men from somewhere to invade?" "Don't you think it's a possibility?" The doctor nodded. "A very good possibility, Captain, but they will not be men." The doctor seemed to pause and lean forward. "That rocket, Captain, is a test rocket. A test rocket _just like ours_!" Then the doctor picked up his whiskey bottle at last and poured two glasses. "Perhaps a drink, Captain?" The captain was watching the sky outside the window. THE END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Test Rocket!, by Jack Douglas *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEST ROCKET! *** ***** This file should be named 23651.txt or 23651.zip ***** This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/5/23651/ Produced by Greg Weeks, dpcfmander, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United Stat
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