Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 101: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Fists flew. A bottle crashed. One of the two women screamed with rage. Her chair had been overturned. She scrambled up from the floor and flew at the nearest man in Sight, screeching and scratching ... The tumult grew horrible. It was like what passed for festivity in the lowest of dives. Men laughed drunkenly at the woman, who was now clawing her chosen victim, Shrieking abuse at him for having knocked her to the floor— as if that were important with the Deli/ah's overdrive off. The man fought back. The woman ’s clothing tore. They’re watching her, thought Brent disgustedly. /can try it. He vaulted the counter, and no one noticed. He crouched down. The front of the bar itself was solid. The bartender had entered through a small, concealed door. Brent found the handle. He went through. He found himself in the smallest of airlocks. He opened the farther door and was in the crew’s part of the ship. He was on a metal catwalk amid a maze of fabricated girders, with feeble’ light showing the rounded compartments of the ship’s essential machinery. The ship was actually an assemblage of metal balloons enclosed in an outer skin, with stiffening braces running in all directions. Brent recognized the pattern instantly. The Delilah was a Stimson-design freighter modified for passengers. Her hull would be strictly standard in contour to fit inside an overdrive field. He heard a dynamo hum. It was making current for the Ship’s interior lighting. There was also the deep purring of the air plant. He placed the two sounds in his mind, arid from that Knowledge could have drawn blueprints for the entire ship. The crew’s quarters would be up high, just under the control room. The interplanetary drive would be just above the ship’s normal center of gravity. The overdrive must be in one particular spot because the overdrive field CORniclooo SS CO