esigned."

"Why?"

A crafty light appeared in the captain's eyes. He sensed a slight
advantage in retaining this knowledge himself.

"I decline to answer," he stated.

The lambent flames leaped ominously in Winford's eyes. He toyed with the
ray pistol expressively, then glanced up at a sudden interruption. The
control room door had opened, admitting Jarl and Ragna.

"The crew is all accounted for," announced Jarl. "We imprisoned a
hundred men and have control."

"Very good, Jarl," replied Winford calmly. "Ragna, take these two
navigating officers down and lock them up with the rest. Jarl, you
remain here. I have a little task for you."

"Awah," replied Jarl, using the Martian term for "very good, sir."

"Captain Robers here is going to strip off his clothing and pass out
through the air-lock into space." Winford spoke each word with cold
precision.

The officer jerked up his head in sudden terror. He had once witnessed
the modern equivalent for the ancient piratical sentence of walking the
plank and the vivid memory rose before him. He saw again the nude man
cowering inside the air-lock as the inner door shut, the wafting out
into interstellar space of his struggling body as the atmosphere inside
the lock rushed out of the outer opening door, and the fatal bloating of
the body from the sudden pressure from within. The horror of it unlocked
the officer's tongue.

"I'll answer, I'll answer!" he cried. "What do you want to know?"

"Tell me why Silas Teutoberg is resigning as president of the
Interstellar Transportation Company."

In the momentary silence that followed, Jarl's eyes narrowed with sudden
intensity. His interest escaped Winford, who was watching Robers
closely. The officer gulped with relief.

"Teutoberg has been named governor of the new emigration colonies the
United States is establishing on Ganymede," he explained hurriedly. "The
Earth Council, which recently took over the most fertile provinces on
the third moon of Jupiter, with the full approval of the Interplanetary
Council, has named him for the post. The position is nearly the same as
that of an absolute monarch. But he could not hold a government post and
retain his executive position with the Interstellar people, so he
resigned."

Winford eyed him skeptically. Captain Robers, now greatly agitated,
gestured frantically toward the chart table.

"I am telling you the truth!" he assured Winford fervently. "You'll find
somewhere on th