Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

got something out of his pocket, and he stepped through the door with a small pocket-blaster out and ready. The engineer was sitting in a folding foam-chair, staring at nothing as if fascinated by his own thoughts. As Brent loomed over him, he licked his lips. Then he jerked his head up, startled. He saw that Brent was not a crew member, but a stranger. He made a convulsive movement. “Still!” said Brent warningly. The tiny blaster bore very steadily. “What’s up? Why is the overdrive off?” The man choked, staring with horrified eyes at the blaster’s muzzle. Brent glanced aside for the fraction of a second. The master switch was open—the engine-room switch. He only needed to look directly at that. Without moving his eyes he could see that the telltale dials that would locate trouble-almost invariably hopeless trouble If it happened in space-were still hooded over. They were never used except in port to check the circuits, and of course, hopelessly, if something did go wrong in space. Between uses they were covered with plastic hoods to protect them from dust. They hadn't been unhooded. So there had been no attempt to find trouble. So there wasn’t any trouble. The main switch had been opened on orders. Brent moved the blaster suggestively. “| said,” he repeated softly, “what’s the trouble? Why Is the drive off? And don’t talk loudly—why are the passengers invited to go mad with fear?” The Delilah's engineer tried to speak. “I—I—”" Then his throat closed with a click. With a visible effort he tore his eyes from the blaster muzzle and looked up at Brent’s face. His expression was one of sheer terror. “How about throwing the switch on?” asked Brent. The engineer moved trembling hands to obey. But Brent saw a gleam of hope in his eyes, or was it a gleam of cunning? Brent snapped, “Don’t touch it!” Then he said as softly as before. “That was just a check-up. If you threw the switch, It wouldn’t start the engines. It would just light up a ‘ready for CORniclooo SS CO