“How do you like my garden, fellows?” Captain Eaton asked. “It helps
keep me from getting homesick. I used to have a most luxuriant garden
back on earth.”
“I can’t believe it!” Garry burst out. “It’s just as if we were outdoors
on a summer day, it’s so real.”
“There’s a goldfish pond, Garry,” Patch said, “with lily pads floating
on top and a bench beside it.”
“I never saw so many kinds of flowers,” Garry said, “and shrubs too.”
“The flowers and shrubs serve a double purpose,” Captain Eaton
explained. “They not only provide homelike pleasure to me and my
friends, but they also help keep the air in the _Carefree_ supplied with
oxygen.”
“I remember,” Garry replied. “Plants in light breathe exactly opposite
from the way we do. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out
oxygen.”
Patch stooped down, examining the roots of a shrub. “Hey, the roots
aren’t growing in soil! How can they live?”
“The plants grow in richly fertilized liquid,” the captain answered. “In
that way, they can be placed much closer together. Besides, some of the
water making up the fertilized liquid comes from waste products within
the ship. There are other reasons too.”
Captain Eaton led the way along the aisle that ran beside the colorfully
lighted aquariums. He stopped in front of a twenty-gallon tank which was
in the process of being cleaned by two men.
One of them was very tall, over six and a half feet. He was very thin
and appeared to be in his late fifties. But the oddest thing about him,
which made Garry and Patch stare at him in surprise, was the fact that
he was in the full dress of a butler, complete with newly starched white
shirt and neatly pressed coat and trousers! Although he was holding a
bucket that was catching water from a draining aquarium, his clothing
wasn’t in the least mussed.
Captain Eaton saw the boys staring at the tall gentleman and said,
“Boys, I want you to meet Mr. Klecker, the Eaton family butler for many
years. When I decided to set out into space on my permanent cruise, he
would not think of being left behind. Klecker, this is Garry and this is
Patch. They will be our guests for awhile.”
Mr. Klecker looked at them with heavy-lidded eyes. Then, bowing, he said
in a deep stately voice, “Pleased, young gentlemen.”
“Glad to know you, Mr. Klecker,” Garry said.
“Me too,” Patch added.
The other person attending to the fish tank was a young man. He rose
from a squatting position and smiled at the boys. He had crew-cut black
hair and the kind of happy features which indicate a friendly nature. He
wiped his damp hands on his trousers and offered a palm to Garry first,
then to Patch.
“Hi, boys. I’m Ben Dawes. Glad to have you aboard,” he said. “It sure is
a surprise meeting fellows as young as yourselves out here in space.”
“It’ll probably be more of a surprise, Ben, to know that they are
alone,” the captain said.
“Not really!” Ben said. “Say, I’ll bet you two have a long story
explaining that!”
“We do,” Garry answered, “and we’ll tell you when we have lots of time.”
“Ben is my right-hand man, whom I wouldn’t part with for all the
millions I own,” Captain Eaton said proudly. “He could build a space
ship out of a safety pin if he had to. He had a big hand in designing
the _Carefree_, and he knows every bolt and rivet in her.”
It was interesting to Garry to hear that the captain was a millionaire.
That probably explained how he could afford to take such a leisurely
cruise through space in something akin to a flying palace.
“While Klecker and Ben are changing the water in this aquarium,” Captain
Eaton said, “how would you like to meet the rest of my friends?”
“We would, Sir,” Garry replied, “but are you sure you don’t have things
to do?” It was hard for Garry to believe that as important a person as a
millionaire would be willing to devote so much time to a couple of
orphans who were lost in space.
“Here my time is my own,” Captain Eaton said. “Back home there were
hundreds of little details that always had to be attended to, and as I
grew older the grind began to keep me in a state of tension and boredom.
That’s when I made up my mind that I would spend the rest of my life the
way that I wanted to—without constant interruption and without ever
hurrying. I sold everything I owned and came into space. That was four
years ago.”
“Why are you so interested in space, Captain?” Garry asked.
“In my early days I had a very keen interest in space travel. I became a
space cadet, but after only four months’ service I was hurt, and my
injury was such that I had to give up any thoughts of a future in the
Space Service. But my keen interest in space stayed with me through the
years, and I never gave up hope of returning to the spaceways. So, you
see, my hope was realized, and here I am as carefree as the name of my
ship.”
“Then you never plan to return to earth, Captain Eaton, ever?” Garry
asked.
“No, I don’t think so. In the first place, the _Carefree_ was built in
space and could not stand the atmospheric friction of an earth return.
Of course, I could get back if I really wanted to. But I don’t believe I
want to. My simple life out here is very satisfying. I never had any
children, and my wife is now dead. No, no close relatives. It takes a
little money to survive out here and pay my friends aboard ship, but it
does not take too much. Yes, this is the good life, and it is enough for
me.”
As Captain Eaton paced the boys by a couple of steps, Garry had to
marvel at the youthful stride of their host. His body was as lean and
spare as a man half his age, and Garry was sure he must have kept
himself in good condition all his life.
As the trio left the garden and moved into the next section, Garry and
Patch heard a fine tenor voice singing a lusty aria from an opera. A
quick study of their surroundings told Garry that they were in the
galley.
As the fragrance of good food reached the boys’ noses, they suddenly
remembered how hungry they were. They hadn’t eaten since they left the
orphanage!
“That’s Gino you hear,” Captain Eaton explained.
The boys presently saw a short, fat little Italian throwing a huge, flat
wad of dough into the air. He stopped when he saw the boys and grinned
so widely that his eyes disappeared and his mouth seemed as broad as
that of a jack-o’-lantern.
Captain Eaton exchanged names so that everyone quickly knew everyone
else. Gino was the ship’s cook, and his full name was Gino Spondini.
Gino kept tossing the dough into the air, and each time he tossed it up
it became thinner and bigger.
“You _bambini_ chose a good day to come to the _Carefree_,” Gino said.
“This is a special day for good food, only once every two weeks, eh,
Captain?”
Captain Eaton nodded. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a grocery store just
around the corner, and so we fill our food room and deep freeze only a
few times a year from the commissary satellite which supplies food to
all the manned satellites around earth. But when we do have an
exceptionally good meal, we enjoy it even more.”
“I don’t know what you’re making, Gino,” Garry said, “but I’m hungry
enough to eat it raw.”
Gino looked shocked. “You don’t know pizza when you see it? Where have
you been all your life, _bambino_?”
“Gino makes the best pizza pie in the world—or should I say the best in
the solar system?” the captain said. “Now, boys, shall we move on and
meet the others?”
They left the galley and proceeded on to the next section within the
_Carefree_, leaving Gino singing another operatic air. The boys wondered
if they could hold out until lunch time.
“Up ahead of us,” Captain Eaton said presently, after passing through a
short hallway, “is the dormitory. Since the dorm is used solely for
sleeping, we made it small so that we could give more area over to the
other parts of the ship where we spend more of our time.”
Garry found the dormitory indeed small and quite simple. There were
three-tiered bunks along the walls, with ladders leading up to the
second and third levels.
The captain smiled. “Patch, you seem to be looking over those bunks
carefully to see if you find any that aren’t made up.” Patch blushed.
“Yes, Sir. I was wondering if....”
“If we have room for you two? Well, breathe easily, for we do have
extras. The ship will sleep twelve, and special cots can be set up to
accommodate more when necessary.”
“They look cozy,” Garry said, “but how do you know when to sleep out
here in space, without any real night or day?”
“We observe a twenty-four-hour day just as they do on earth. Scientists
have found out that space travelers get along much better if they keep
the same hourly habits to which they are accustomed. We even simulate
the appearance of night, turning down the lights and observing quiet.
You’ll find out that you get sleepy at just the right time and that you
wake the ‘next morning’ feeling just as refreshed as you did on earth.”
Suddenly, they heard a stirring in one of the top bunks. A deeply tanned
man with a thick shock of auburn hair raised up sleepily.
“Oh, it’s you, Captain,” the man said with a yawn. Then he perked up.
“Who is it with you, Sir?” The man’s accent was a thick Scottish brogue.
“We have guests, Mac,” the captain replied. “These are Garry and Patch.
Fellows, meet Mr. McIntosh, pilot, navigator, engineer, and what have
you. He likes to be called Mac.”
“Hi, fellows, glad to have you aboard,” Mac said cordially, then yawned
again.
“Sorry we woke you, Mac,” the captain said.
“I’m just about due to relieve Isaac upstairs, Sir. That’s all right.”
“I was just showing the boys the ship. We’ll move on so you can get
dressed.”
As they left the dormitory to pass into another hallway, Captain Eaton
asked, “You’ve heard of Isaac Newton, haven’t you, boys?”
“Oh yes, Sir,” Garry responded eagerly. “He was one of the very greatest
scientists. He died a long time ago.”
The captain winked at them. “Well, we’re going to meet him,” he said.