Read Online Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein - Free Book Online Page B

to be sure with him. If only Joe-Jim would sleep, too.
           Joe-Jim showed no indication of sleepiness. Joe tried to continue reading, but Jim interrupted him from time to time. Alan could not hear what they were saying.
           Presently Joe raised his voice. "Is that your idea of fun?" he demanded.
           "Well," said Jim, "it beats checkers."
           "It does, does it? Suppose you get a knife in your eye—where would I be then?"
           "You're getting old, Joe. No juice in you any more."  
           "You're as old as I am."  
           "Yeah, but I got young ideas."
           "Oh, you make me sick. Have it your own way—but don't blame me. Bobo!"
           The dwarf sprang up at once, alert. "Yeah, Boss."
           "Go out and dig up Squatty and Long Arm and Pig." Joe-Jim got up, went to a locker, and started pulling knives out of their racks.
     
           Hugh heard the commotion in the passageway outside his prison. It could be the guards coming to take him to the Converter, though they probably wouldn't be so noisy. Or it could be just some excitement unrelated to him. On the other hand it might be—
           It was. The door burst open, and Alan was inside, shouting at him and thrusting a brace of knives into his hands. He was hurried out of the door, while stuffing the knives in his belt and accepting two more.
           Outside he saw Joe-Jim, who did not see him at once, as he was methodically letting fly, as calmly as if he had been engaging in target practice in his own study. And Bobo, who ducked his head and grinned with a mouth widened by a bleeding cut, but continued the easy flow of the motion whereby he loaded and let fly. There were three others, two of whom Hugh recognized as belonging to Joe-Jim's privately owned gang of bullies—muties by definition and birthplace; they were not deformed.
           The count does not include still forms on the floor plates.
           "Come on!" yelled Alan. "There'll be more in no time." He hurried down the passage to the right.
           Joe-Jim desisted and followed him. Hugh let one blade go for luck at a figure running away to the left. The target was poor, and he had no time to see if he had drawn blood. They scrambled along the passage, Bobo bringing up the rear, as if reluctant to leave the fun, and came to a point where a side passage crossed the main one.
           Alan led them to the right again. "Stairs ahead," he shouted.
           They did not reach them. An airtight door, rarely used, clanged in their faces ten yards short of the stairs. Joe-Jim's bravoes checked their flight and they looked doubtfully at their master. Bobo broke his thickened nails trying to get a purchase on the door.
           The sounds of pursuit were clear behind them.  
           "Boxed in," said Joe softly. "I hope you like it, Jim."  
           Hugh saw a head appear around the corner of the passage they had quitted. He threw overhand but the distance was too great; the knife clanged harmlessly against steel. The head disappeared. Long Arm kept his eye on the spot, his sling loaded and ready.
           Hugh grabbed Bobo's shoulder. "Listen! Do you see that light?"
           The dwarf blinked stupidly. Hugh pointed to the intersection of the glowtubes where they crossed in the overhead directly above the junction of the passages. "That light. Can you hit them where they cross?"
           Bobo measured the distance with his eye. It would be a hard shot under any conditions at that range. Here, constricted as he was by the low passageway, it called for a fast, flat trajectory, and allowance for higher weight than he was used to.
           He did not answer. Hugh felt the wind of his swing but did not see the shot. There was a tinkling crash; the passage became dark.
           "Now!" yelled Hugh, and led them away at a run. As they neared the intersection he