"Let's say I'm not afraid to die. I've been a living dead man for eight
years. Come on."
One of the so-called coffins, a tiny one-man ship barely big enough for
a prone man, food concentrates and water, was already waiting at the
station spacefield.
Ten minutes after hearing about _Mozart's Lady_, without fanfare, Mayhem
blasted off in pursuit.
* * * * *
Maintaining top speed all the way, House Bartock brought _Mozart's Lady_
across almost two billion miles of space from Neptune's to Pluto's orbit
in three days. He was delighted with the speed. It would have taken the
average space-tub ten days to two weeks and, since as far as Bartock
knew there were nothing but average space-tubs on Neptune, that gave him
a considerable head-start.
It was Jane Cummings-First Violin who discovered Bartock's identity.
Bartock was studying the star-map at the time and considered himself
safe from discovery because he kept the control door of _Mozart's Lady_
locked. However, Jane Cummings had established something of a liaison
with the pilot outward bound from Earth and Mars, so she had been given
a spare key which she'd kept, secretly, all the time the symphony was on
Triton. Now, curious about the new pilot for the same reason that the
miners on Triton had been curious about the symphony, Jane made her way
forward, inserted her key in the lock, and pushed open the control door.
"Hello there," she said.
House Bartock whirled. The turning of a key in the lock had so unnerved
him--it was the last thing he expected--that he forgot to shut off the
star-map. Its tell-tale evidence glowed on the wall over his head.
"What do you want?" he managed to ask politely.
"Oh, just to say hello."
"You already said it."
Jane Cummings pouted. "You needn't bite my head off. What's your name?
Mine's Jane, and I play the violin. It wouldn't hurt you to be polite."
Bartock nodded, deciding that a little small talk wouldn't hurt if he
could keep the girl from becoming suspicious. That was suddenly
important. If this girl had a key to the control room, for all he knew
there could be others.
"My, you have been hurrying," Jane said. "I could tell by the
acceleration. You must be trying to break the speed records or
something. I'll bet we're almost to Earth--"
Her voice trailed off and her mouth hung open. At first Bartock didn't
know what was the matter. Then he saw where she was staring.
The star-map.
"We're not heading for Earth!" she cried.
Bartock walked toward her. "Give me that key," he said. "You're going to
have to stay here with me. Give me that key."