The doctor replied. "Your arm will be normal in about twenty minutes. It
will ache some, but you’ll have full use of it. We’ll bring you back to
the ship in about twenty-four hours for another look at it, just to be
sure."
Sixty minutes later, clean, fed, and contented, the Planeteers were again
on the thorium planet while the _Scorpius_, riding the same orbit, stood
by a few miles out in space.
The asteroid and the great cruiser arched high above the belt of tiny
worlds in the orbit Rip had set, traveling together toward distant Mars.