was one reason we chose you for
this place. Try to consider, for a moment, the bare possibility that
your decision to reduce speed may not have been justified."

* * * * *

Evans was silent, and finally Burl asked, "How far did we get today?"

"240 Light years."

"And if you decide to continue at that speed for five or six days, that
means we'll be approximately three days behind schedule in touching
Almazin III?"

"About that."

"And that means we won't break the record. Now consider the reason for
this very unhappy situation. Think about it with an open mind. You have
one Pile heating--but has that never happened to a ship before, even in
normal space? You and I both know it happens, and that ships have been
lost because of a defective Pile. Logically, why shouldn't this be just
another such case? You say it is caused by the Ripples, but as man to
man, what objective evidence can you bring forward to prove their
existence? I'm not trying to browbeat you, you understand, but just to
ask you to look at the matter carefully. You said yourself, this
morning, that you hadn't expected to be meeting the Ripples at this
point--you had thought they occurred in a rather different area of
hyperspace. Couldn't that mean that they don't really exist, anywhere?"

Captain Evans wiped his glistening forehead with his handkerchief.

"Yes," he said. "I was surprised. I'll admit I didn't expect them here.
But there's so much we don't know about hyperspace!"

"No, there's so much we _do_ know! Are you a child, to fancy there are
goblins outside just because it's dark? There is a perfectly rational,
alternative explanation for the things that worry you. Why can't you
accept them?"

Evans got up and began to pace the floor. "I guess I'm following a
hunch."

"But would you make us lose the Blue Ribbon for a mere hunch? Don't you
trust your own objective judgment?"

Sweating heavily, the Captain tried to stub out his cigar, but his hands
were moist and his fingers trembled.

"I don't know!" he shouted. Then he went on, his voice low and tired.
"You may be right. Burl. You may be right. We may not have hit the
Ripples. The Ripples may not even exist, although some very competent
spacemen and some very brilliant physicists are convinced they do. But
how can I judge? How can I be sure?"

Jasperson leaned forward, intent as a cat on a bird.

"None of the other Piles have started to heat? There's