Hanging by a Thread

Hanging by a Thread is a Fiction Short Story Book. It's seldom that the fate of a shipful of men literally hangs by a thread but it's also seldom that a device, every part of which has been thoroughly tested, won't work. Jayjay Kelvin was sitting in the lounge of the interplanetary cargo vessel Persephone, his feet propped up on the low table in front of the couch, and his attention focused almost totally on the small book he was reading. The lounge itself was cozily small; the Persephone had not been designed as a passenger vessel, and the two passengers she was carrying at the time had been taken on as an accommodation rather than as a money making proposition. On the other hand, the Persephone and other ships like her were the only method of getting to where Jayjay Kelvin wanted to go; there were no regular passenger runs to Pluto. It's hardly the vacation spot of the Solar System. On the other side of the table, Jeffry Hull was working industriously with pencil and paper. Jayjay kept his nose buried in his book not because he was deliberately slighting Hull, but because he was genuinely interested in the book. "Now wait", said Masterson, looking thoughtfully at the footprints on the floor of the cabin where Jed Hooker had died. "Jest take another look at these prints, Charlie. Silver Bill Greer couldn't have got much more than his big toe into boots that small! Somethin' tells me the Pecos Kid has…".