"What? No, there wasn't. I looked it up. There were only those three
waiting captainless in port."
"But there would have been four," he said, "if I'd passed my exam.
Sparks--Cap Hanson's a great guy, isn't he?"
"Sure. A grand old-timer. But--"
And then, suddenly, I got it! Got it, and realized what an all-around
humdinging hell of a real man Lancelot Biggs really is! I said:
"You mean--you mean that if you had earned your stripes, the Old
Man was going to be set down? And you'd be placed in command of the
_Saturn_? Is that it? Why, you--"