Free Have space suit-- will travel by Robert A. Heinlein

the floor and the other walls. Still nothing. The ship ached with silence-no throb, no thump, not even those vibrations you can sense but not hear. “You’re right, Peewee.”
    “I noticed it when the air circulation stopped.”
    I sniffed. “Are we running out of air?”
    “Not right away. But the air stopped-it comes out of those tiny holes up there. You don’t notice it but I missed something when it stopped.”
    I thought hard. “I don’t see where this gets us. We’re still locked up.”
    “I’m not sure.”
    I tried the blade of my knife on a wall. It wasn’t metal or anything I knew as plastic, but it didn’t mind a knife. Maybe the Comte de Monte Cristo could have dug a hole in it-but he had more time. “How do you figure?”
    “Every time they’ve opened or closed that door panel, I’ve heard a click. So after they took you out I stuck a wad of bubble gum where the panel meets the wall, high up where they might not notice.”
    “You’ve got some gum?”
    “Yes. It helps, when you can’t get a drink of water. I-“
    “Got any more?” I asked eagerly. I wasn’t fresh in any way but thirst was the worst-I’d never been so thirsty.
    Peewee looked upset. “Oh, poor Kip! I haven’t any more . . . just an old wad I kept parked on my belt buckle and chewed when I felt driest.” She frowned. “But you can have it. You’re welcome.”
    “Uh, thanks, Peewee. Thanks a lot. But I guess not.”
    She looked insulted. “I assure you, Mr. Russell, that I do not have anything contagious. I was merely trying to-“
    “Yes, yes,” I said hastily. “I’m sure you were. But-“
    “I assumed that these were emergency conditions. It is surely no more unsanitary than kissing a girl-but then I don’t suppose you’ve ever kissed a girl!”
    “Not lately,” I evaded. “But what I want is a drink of clear cold water- or murky warm water. Besides, you used up your gum on the door panel. What did you expect to accomplish?”
    “Oh. I told you about that click. Daddy says that, in a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem. I tried to introduce a change with my bubble gum.”
    “Well?”
    “When they brought you back, then closed the door, I didn’t hear a click.”
    “What? Then you thought you had bamboozled their lock hours and hour ago-and you didn’t tell me?”
    “That is correct.”
    “Why, I ought to spank you!”
    “I don’t advise it,” she said frostily. “I bite.”
    I believed her. And scratch. And other things. None of them pleasant. I changed the subject. “Why didn’t you tell me, Peewee?”
    “I was afraid you might try to get out.”
    “Huh? I certainly would have!”
    “Precisely. But I wanted that panel closed ... as long as he was out there.”
    Maybe she was a genius. Compared with me. “I see your point. All right, let’s see if we can get it open.” I examined the panel. The wad of gum was there, up high as she could reach, and from the way it was mashed it did seem possible that it had fouled the groove the panel slid into, but I couldn’t see any crack down the edge.
    I tried the point of my big blade on it. The panel seemed to creep to the right an eighth of an inch-then the blade broke.
    I closed the stub and put the knife away. “Any ideas?”
    “Maybe if we put our hands flat against it and tried to drag it?”
    “Okay.” I wiped sweat from my hands on my shirt. “Now . . . easy does it. Just enough pressure for friction.”
    The panel slid to the right almost an inch-and stopped firmly.
    But there was a hairline crack from floor to ceiling.
    I broke off the stub of the big blade this time. The crack was no wider. Peewee said, “Oh, dear!”
    “We aren’t licked.” I backed off and ran toward the door.
    “Toward,” not “to”-my feet skidded, I leveled off and did a leisurely bellywhopper. Peewee didn’t laugh.
    I picked myself up, got against the far wall, braced one foot against it and tried a swimming racing