CHAPTER VIII

When they got back they found Murgatroyd pacing up and down the floor of the deck-chamber, looking about him with serious eyes, but betraying no other visible sign of anxiety. The _Astronef_ was at once his home and his idol, and, as Redgrave had said, even his own direct orders would hardly have induced him to leave her even in a world in which there was not a living human being to dispute possession of her. When they had resumed their ordinary clothing the _Astronef_ rose from the surface of the plain, crossed th…