are insured against its defective performance. Ten thousand
dollars, paid in case of death, is still a lot of money. S.C.S. has
made fine products for over forty years. No dangerous, new-fangled
ideas can yet replace them. Considering the risk inherent in space
colonization, occasional mishaps can hardly be avoided. You all know
that. Business--life--everything--is a gamble."

Sure. About chance-taking there was truth in his pompous words. But
did one buy a life with a few thousand dollars, or call money a just
penalty for obvious and deadly neglect?

Knots of muscle gathered at the angles of Lawler's square jaw. Old
Stan Kraskow stared at Lauren as if he didn't believe that anybody
could talk so stupidly.

Bert Kraskow's savage blood seethed. But when he was really sore his
tendency was to be coldly and quietly logical in his speech and
actions. The plans to change things were made. He was in on them. And
what was the use of getting into arguments that might give the enemy a
hint? Or set off violence that might spoil everything?

"Easy," he whispered. "Dad! Lawler! Don't talk. Don't start anything."

But Alice Leland Kraskow, Bert's wife, had arrived on the scene. She
was little and dark and fiery, one of the few feminine colonists yet
on Titan. In another airdome, where Bert and she had their cottage,
she had been awakened by the shouts of those who had seen the accident
take place. Donning a spacesuit, she had followed the crowd.

Being at a little distance from her, Bert had no chance to shush her
outspoken comments. And to try might have done no good, anyway. She
had truth to tell, and a woman's tongue to tell it.

"Yes, Mr. Lauren," she said pointedly. "We're all gamblers. Granted.
But you started to cheat even before you were afraid of losing. Maybe
it's time we did something about it."

Trenton Lauren looked more scared than before. But now, as two Space
Patrolmen in their silvery armor, arrived from their quarters and
stood beside him, he smiled a little.

"Madam," he drawled, "maybe I know what you mean. You want to defy the
law. Someone around here has been hoping for word from Earth that an
okay has been granted by the Safe Products Approval Board, for, shall
we say, a radically new product? Well, the optimists will wait a long
time for such approval at the S.P.A.B. The action of this invention
is, to say the least, extremely dangerous. So, if they're that
foolish, those optimists might as well go