Captain Jellico stood up.  “They aren’t any more anxious to see us go than we are to get out of here.  You’ve pulled it off for us again, Van, and we’re lucky to get out of it this easy—­”

Van Rycke rolled his eyes ceilingward.  “You’ll never know how lucky!  Be glad Combine hates the space I-S blasts through.  We were able to use that to our advantage.  Get the big fellows at each others’ throats and they’ll stop annoying us—­simple proposition but it works.  Anyway we’re set in blessed and peaceful obscurity now.  Thank the Spirit of Free Space there’s practically no trouble one can get into on a safe and sane mail route!”

But Cargo-master Van Rycke, in spite of knowing the Solar Queen and the temper of her crew, was exceedingly over-optimistic when he made that emphatic statement.