Winstead stooped to peer into the opening. It was deeper than he had thought, but a three-foot square was not much of a cross section. All surfaces inside were thickly padded and springy to the touch. "Here's the light switch," the spacer said, turning on a soft interior light. "The rest of the facilities and instructions are on this plate beside the hatch. Okay now, grab that handhold up there so you go in feet first. Alley-oop!" _As long as I don't come out that way_, thought Winstead, sliding into the compartment with surprising ease. He twisted around and discovered that the door had a small window. "Make yourself comfortable," said the spacer. "Just don't forget to close the hatch when the takeoff buzzer sounds. You'd better listen for it." He turned away. Winstead saw him look into several other little windows along the bulkhead. "Are there other passengers?" asked Winstead. "No. Just checking to see if all my crew stayed. Always seems to be one that slides down the pipe before takeoff. Dunno why they sign on if they don't like the risk." "What--what risk?" "Didn't the Agency tell you? We've got nothing below here but tanks of concentrated landing fuel for the station on Gelbchen II. The idea makes some of them nervous now and then. They talk quiet, they walk quiet, and they wouldn't wear an orange suit." He pulled open a door and nodded in gloomy satisfaction when the compartment proved to be empty. "_Is_ it dangerous?" asked Winstead. * * * * * The spacer gnawed upon a very short thumbnail. "What's dangerous?" he retorted at last. "You can get killed any day under a downcoming aircar." Winstead considered. "Where's the captain?" he inquired. "I'm the captain." "But--aren't you preparing to blast off?" "I generally let my second pilot do it," said the spacer. "But why? I thought--" "Why? Because I own the ship, that's why." "What has that got to do with it?" said Winstead. "I should think you'd want all the more to handle it yourself!" "Listen--I sweated out years in space, saving the price of this can. If she blows up, d'you think I want to know that I did it? There's the buzzer. Button up!" He pulled himself into a compartment like Winstead's and clapped the door shut. Winstead, beginning to perspire gently, found the safety straps, secured himself, and awaited the worst. The _Leaky Dipper_ sped through interstellar space for five silent and introverted days before reaching the little yellow sun named Gelbchen. The highlight of the flight was the day one of the crew dropped his mess tray on the deck, causing one faint, one case of palpitations, and one fist fight, in approximately that order. The captain spent two days groping his way into an orbit about the second planet. When he announced that the cargo would be pumped into a number of small local tankers that had risen from the surface to meet them, Winstead volunteered to go down in the first one.