e it, but he had no choice. "All right," he said. He
polished off his glass of Madeira and refilled it. My own glass was
still nearly full.

"Mr. Oak," he began, "I have two problems. One is minor, the other
major. But I have attempted to blow the minor problem up out of
proportion, so that all the people here at Raven's Rest think that it
is the only problem. They think that I brought you out here for that
reason alone.

"But all that is merely cover-up for the real problem."

"Which is?" I prompted.

He leaned forward again. Apparently, it was the only exercise he ever
got. "You're aware that Viking Spacecraft is one of the corporations
under the management of Ravenhurst Holdings?"

I nodded. Viking Spacecraft built some of the biggest and best
spacecraft in the System. It held most of Ceres--all of it, in fact,
except the Government Reservation. It had moved out to the asteroids a
long time back, after the big mining concerns began cutting up the
smaller asteroids for metal. The raw materials are easier to come by
out here than they are on Earth, and it's a devil of a lot easier to
build spacecraft under low-gee conditions than it is under the pull of
Earth or Luna or Mars.

"Do you know anything about the experimental robotic ships being built
on Eros?" Ravenhurst asked.

"Not much," I admitted. "I've heard about them, but I don't know any
of the details." That wasn't quite true, but I've found it doesn't pay
to tell everybody everything you know.

"The engineering details aren't necessary," Ravenhurst said. "Besides,
I don't know them, myself. The point is that Viking is trying to build
a ship that will be as easy to operate as a flitterboat--a one-man
cargo vessel. Perhaps even a completely automatic job for cargo, and
just use a one-man crew for the passenger vessels. Imagine how that
would cut the cost of transportation in the Solar System! Imagine how
it would open up high-speed cargo transfer if an automatic vessel
could accelerate at twenty or twenty-five gees to turnover!"

I'll give Ravenhurst this: He had a light in his eyes that showed a
real excitement about the prospect he was discussing, and it wasn't
due entirely to the money he might make.

"Sounds fine," I said. "What seems to be the trouble?"

His face darkened half a shade. "The company police suspect sabotage,
Mr. Oak."

"How? What kind?"

[Illustration]

"They don't know. Viking has built six ships of that type--the McGuire
c