the hammer.

The cat split open.

Scotty let out a yell of triumph. In the bottom half was a square of
lead, and it was clearly a box, not a solid lump.

"Hurry!" Rick pleaded.

Scotty took the screw driver and pried. The lead box yielded
reluctantly.

There wasn't a sound in the control room except for the impulses from
the tape recorder, which ran on unnoticed.

Scotty pried gingerly, and the lead box came loose and dropped to the
floor.

Rick scooped it up and turned it in his hands, looking for the opening.
He found only a thin seam of solder around one flat side.

"Have to cut it open," Rick said. Using his jackknife, he scored the
bead of solder. It cut easily. He scored it again, deeper, and felt the
knife blade penetrate. He turned the box and did the same thing to both
ends.

Face flushed with excitement, he took the screw driver, thrust it under
the lid, and bent it upward.

The box opened.

It contained a solid wad of bills. Rick touched the top one, still a
little unbelieving. The figure on it was 1000!

He turned the box over and tapped it. The bills dropped out. He didn't
doubt there were two hundred of them.

Two hundred thousand dollars!

Rick looked at the expressions on the faces around him. Scotty was
standing with openmouthed excitement. Youssef was leaning forward,
feasting on the wealth with greedy eyes. Moustafa was slumped in
resignation. And Ismail ben Adhem had the look of the cat that swallowed
the cream.

"Now," Rick said triumphantly, "now we know why the cat was important!"

CHAPTER XX

The Signal Vanishes

Rick studied the Sanborn tracing. He could see where the pulsed signals
gradually disappeared into a much stronger, steady 21-centimeter signal.

"We lost it at 4:02 yesterday," Winston said. "It hasn't reappeared.
Apparently the signal source moved into, or behind, a globular cluster."

Rick's brows knit. "That's more evidence that it was moving contrary to
normal direction?"

"It is," Dr. Kerama agreed. "What's more, the calculated velocity was
simply incredible. The only velocities we know of that approximate it
are those of galaxies at the very limit of our instruments."

Rick said what was on his mind. "It was a spaceship. What else would
travel across normal star directions giving out signals?"

He grinned sheepishly. It wasn't strictly proper to blurt out his own
theories.

"The possibility has occurred to us," Kerama said slowly. "It is
c