, felt[2] of Newman's head, then looked casually at the three other
bodies.

[2] Transcriber's note: As in original.

"Oh, I _killed_ him, Carl!" Barbara sobbed, convulsively. "And the worst
of it is, I really _meant_ to! I _never_ did anything like that before
in my whole life!"

"You didn't kill him, Barbara," Adams said.

"Huh?" She raised her head from Deston's shoulder; the contrast between
her streaming eyes and the relief dawning over her whole face was almost
funny. "Why, I did the foulest things possible, and as hard as I
possibly could. I'm _sure_ I killed him."

"By no means, my dear. Judo techniques, however skillfully and
powerfully applied, do not and can not kill instantly. Bullets through
the brain do. I will photograph the cadavers, of course, and perform the
customary post-mortem examinations for the record; but I know already
what the findings will be. These four men died instantly of gunshot
wounds."

* * * * *

With the four gangsters gone, life aboardship settled down quickly into
a routine. That routine, however, was in no sense dull. The officers had
plenty to do; operating the whole ship and rebuilding the mechanisms
that were operating on jury rigging or on straight "bread-board"
hookups. And in their "spare" time they enjoyed themselves tremendously
in becoming better and better acquainted with their wives. For Bernice
and Jones, like Barbara and Deston, had for each other an infinite
number of endless vistas of personality; the exploration of which was
sheerest delight.

The girls--each of whom became joyously pregnant as soon as she
could--kept house and helped their husbands whenever need or opportunity
arose. Their biggest chore, however, was to see to it that Adams got
sleep, food, and exercise. For, if left to his own devices, he would
never have exercised at all, would have grabbed a bite now and then, and
would have slept only when he could no longer stay awake.

"Uncle Andy, why don't you _use_ that Big Brain of yours?" Barbara
snapped at him one day. "For a man that's actually as smart as you are,
I swear you've got the least sense of anybody I know!"

"But it's necessary, my dear child," Adams explained, unmoved. "This
material is new. There are many extremely difficult problems involved,
and I have less than a year to work on them. Less than _one year_; and
it is a task for a team of specialists and all the resources of a
research cen