desperate
attempt to do murder despite premature discovery. He was prepared to
shoot quite ruthlessly.

But there was no rush. Instead, there came hesitant foot-falls. The door
of the cabin slid slowly aside. A girl appeared in the opening,
desperately white and desperately composed.

"H-how did you know I was there?" she asked shakily. She moistened her
lips. "You didn't see me! I was in a closet, and you didn't even enter
the room!"

Calhoun said grimly;

"I've sources of information." He pointed to Murgatroyd.

The girl did not move. Her eyes went from Murgatroyd to Calhoun.

"And now," said Calhoun, "do you want to tell me your story? You have
one ready, I'm sure."

"There--there isn't any," said the girl unsteadily. "Just--I--I need to
get to Orede, and you're going there. There's no other way to go--now."

"To the contrary," said Calhoun, "there'll undoubtedly be a fleet
heading for Orede as soon as it can be assembled and armed. But I'm
afraid that's not a very good story. Try another."

She shivered a little.

"I'm--running away ..."

"Ah!" said Calhoun. "In that case I'll take you back."

"No!" she said fiercely. "I'll--I'll die first! I'll wreck this ship
first!"

Her hand came from behind her. There was a tiny blaster in it. But it
shook visibly as she tried to aim it.

"I'll--shoot out the controls!"

Calhoun blinked. He'd had to make a drastic change in his estimate of
the situation the instant he saw that the stowaway was a girl. Now he
had to make another when her threat was not to kill him but to disable
the ship. Women are rarely assassins, and when they are they don't use
energy weapons. Daggers and poisons are more typical.

"I'd rather you didn't do that," said Calhoun drily. "Besides, you'd get
deadly bored if we were stuck in a derelict waiting for our air and food
to give out."

Murgatroyd, for no reason whatever, felt it necessary to enter the
conversation. He said;

"_Chee-chee-chee!_"

"A very sensible suggestion," observed Calhoun. "We'll sit down and have
a cup of coffee." To the girl he said, "I'll take you to Orede, since
that's where you say you want to go."

"I--there's a boy there--"

Calhoun shook his head.

"No," he said reprovingly. "Nearly all the mining colony had packed
itself into the ship that came into Weald with everybody dead. But not
all. And there's been no check of what men were in the ship and what men
weren't. You wouldn't go to Orede if it