enough room. A lifeboat which had been designed to carry
two hundred and fifty persons could not suddenly expand to take in three
hundred and seventy-five, although Chief Thayer did his best. At Boat E
he stood with drawn pistol, sorting the crowd, and ordering them one by
one through the port according to custom as ancient as the race.

"Women and children first," he repeated, again and again. "_Women and
children first!_"

They could hear from distant corridors an occasional shout and the
clatter of running feet, but the first panic had subsided, and under the
menace of the crew's guns the people had become subdued.

White-faced men stepped back and made themselves inconspicuous in the
shadows, watching their wives and children file through the port, and
looking after them hungrily. Once, a man screamed and tried to crash
through the cordon. Thayer shot him, and he fell moaning to the floor.
Dr. Willoughby moved through the crowd, soothing the hysterical,
jollying the frightened, until he spied Alan Chase standing at the edge
of the group.

He pushed through to Alan and threw his arm around the bony shoulder,
encouragingly.

"I'm assigned to this first boat, Chase, and they'll want you in one of
the others. We want at least one medical man in each boat. But I must
warn you--" he look-ed around cautiously, but they might have been alone
in a desert for all chance there was of anyone's listening to them, "be
sure to get off in Boats B or D. Don't wait for Boat A."

"What difference does it make?"

"Boat A lies above two of the Piles that had to be dumped, and the
radioactivity index is sure to be high. Normal people won't be harmed in
the brief time they'll be on board if they're rescued, and if they're
not rescued, of course, it won't matter anyway. Even you might not be
harmed, but with your condition you shouldn't take the risk."

"But does it really matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that we'd counted on my reaching Almazin III quickly and living
in an inert atmosphere in order to cure the neosarcoma. Now that the
_Star Lord_ is wrecked, I may not be able to get there for months, and
that will be too late. If I'm going to die, I'd rather stay with the
ship and get it over with."

"Don't be an idiot, doctor! Don't you realize how much better you are?
The mitosis was definitely decreasing the last time I checked you. This
delay won't be fatal, I'm convinced."

Alan shook his head skeptically.

"D