Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

interplanetary drive. Such a journey might take months, but it could be done. It could travel perhaps one light-hour, or even two, but not for light-years. Therefore it would drift forever. Brent went to his own cabin. Had he not been in the Profession he would have been raging. Instead he was wholly, icily calm. /t’s the idea, he thought, that she and her father will be killed by those beasts—made into beasts on purpose. Then maybe they’ll even execute the survivors just to make everything tidy. In a day or so we'll all be Classifiable as criminals. Getting at some of his luggage and checking on what he extracted from it, he estimated there should be at least one murder on the Delilah within the next six hours. By that time everybody on the ship would have become acutely aware that there was life, in terms of food and water and air, to be gained every time someone else died. But he underestimated. He was in his cabin less than thirty minutes. When he came out there was already a man dead on the floor of the passengers’ lounge, with blood glistening in a dark pool beside him. IV NONE of the Delilah's officers was anywhere about. Brent asked questions angrily. No ship’s officer had appeared. The dead man lay where he had fallen. Somebody had come out of the bar, reeling. He shouted crazily: “Everybody’s gonna die! Everybody! Who’s gonna be first?” A sober man—now dead—had gone up to him and tried to quiet him, urging that the women were already despairing enough and there was surely no need for the children— The drunk bellowed, “You be first!” And stabbed. Then he advanced upon other passengers, waving a blood-stained Knife and shouting his senseless refrain: “Everybody’s gonna CORniclooo SS CO