fore I could flip the "Lachesis" into Cth, check the speed and motion,
and get back into threespace.

* * * * *

Chase was gone--and "Lachesis" was done. A week in drydock and she'd be
as good as new, but she was no longer a fighting ship. She was a wreck.
For us the battle was over--but somehow it didn't make me happy. The
"Amphitrite" hung off our port bow, a tiny silver dot in the distance,
and as I watched two more silver dots winked into being beside her.
Haskins reported the I.F.F. readings.

"They're ours," he said. "A couple of cruisers."

"They should have been here ten minutes ago," I replied bitterly. I
couldn't see very well. You can't when emotion clogs your tubes.
Chase--coward?--not him. He was man clear through--a better one than I'd
ever be even if I lived out my two hundred years. I wondered if the crew
knew what sort of man their skipper was. I turned up the command helmet.
"Men--" I began, but I didn't finish.

"We know," the blended thoughts and voices came back at me. Sure they
knew! Chase had been on command circuit too. It was enough to make you
cry--the mixture of pride, sadness and shame that rang through the
helmet. It seemed to echo and reecho for a long time before I shut it
off.

I sat there, thinking. I wasn't mad at the Rebels. I wasn't anything.
All I could think was that we were paying a pretty grim price for
survival. Those aliens had better show up pretty soon--and they'd better
be as nasty as their reputation. There was a score--a big score--and I
wanted to be there when it was added up and settled.

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ December 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of Project Gutenberg's A Question of Courage, by Jesse Franklin Bone

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