"Yes." She paused. "There's only one young one. Why are you worried about him? Do you think he's sick or something?" But that was the question she should have asked _before_ asking the man's identity. Mattern let a moment elapse, then said, "His papers appear to be forged." He glanced at the reflection of her face, but it held neither relief nor fear, merely its usual sweet emptiness. "Maybe he needed a job real bad," she said. "Maybe," her husband agreed, "but why use forged papers?" "He might of gotten into some kind of trouble--you know how boys are." "I'd hardly care to employ the kind of spaceman who gets into trouble serious enough for him to lose his papers. You have to do something pretty drastic to get them taken away, you know." She said nothing. * * * * * He went on, "What I'm beginning to suspect is that he isn't really a trained spaceman at all, that he didn't go to any of the Earth space schools." "Do you have to go to an Earth space school to be a spaceman? Can't you study somewhere else?" "Earth's the only place where they give the conditioning." He told the truth, figuring she wouldn't understand. She turned to look at him. "That's so the men shouldn't--see the things outside when they go through hyperspace, isn't it?" Mattern was somewhat taken aback. "How did you know? It's not public information." She shrugged and turned back to the dressing table. "I've known a lot of spacemen, hon." Her face was pale, but why just now? He wondered just what Raines had told her--how much the boy actually knew. Naturally there could be only one possible reason he had chosen Lyddy as his confidante. "There's something between you and Raines, isn't there?" he asked. There was a slight delay. Then her laughter shrilled through the cabin. "Don't be silly, hon; I hardly know the man! All I've done was speak to him a couple of times!" She got up and put her soft arms around her husband. "You're jealous, Len," she said, and there was complacency mixed with the fright in her eyes. He felt a pang of disgust, but tried not to let it show. Gently, he put her away from him. "But that's so silly," she murmured. "How could I prefer a dumb pimply kid to you?" In theory, that was quite true, but Len knew women had strange tastes. And possibly "a dumb pimply kid" _had_ more to offer her emotionally and, in reverse, intellectually, than he had. It was not impossible that she was telling the truth, but Mattern could not, of course, believe her. And there was no point in making a further issue of it now. When they reached Burdon, he would fire Raines simply on the basis of the forged papers. No need to bring Lyddy into it at all. So that problem would be easily solved, but what of the others? He went to play chess with the kqyres. "I trust you have got over your whimsical notion to retire," the xhind said hopefully.