IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE, of course. But nothing made sense in this mad venture. Grannie Annie opened her duffel bag and drew out a copy of her most popular book. With the volume under her arm, she mounted the ladder to the top of the envelope. Ezra Karn rigged up a radite search lamp, and a moment later the old woman stood in the center of a circle of white radiance.
Karn gripped my arm. “This is it,” he said tensely. “If this fails ...”
His voice clipped off as Grannie began to read. She read slowly at first, then intoned the words and sentences faster and more dramatically.
And out in the swamp a vast hush fell as if unseen ears were listening.
“... the space liner was over on her beam ends now as another shot from the raider’s vessel crashed into the stern hold. In the control cabin Cu
