ting them there."

I phrased my question carefully, as I had him right where I wanted him
now. "You deny any knowledge of the Warlord battleship that is being
built from these modified plans."

"These are the plans for an ordinary passenger-freighter, that is all I
know."

His words had the simple innocence of a young child's. Was he ever
caught. I sat back with a relaxed sigh and lit a cigar.

"Wouldn't you be interested in knowing something about that robot who is
holding you," I said. He looked down, as if aware for the first time
that the robot had been holding him by the wrist during the interview.
"That is no ordinary robot. It has a number of interesting devices built
into its fingertips. Thermocouples, galvanometers, things like that.
While you talked it registered your skin temperature, blood pressure,
amount of perspiration and such. In other words it is an efficient and
fast working lie detector. We will now hear all about your lies."

Ferraro pulled away from the robot's hand as if it had been a poisonous
snake. I blew a relaxed smoke ring. "Report," I said to the robot. "Has
this man told any lies?"

"Many," the robot said. "Exactly seventy-four per cent of all statements
he made were fake."

"Very good," I nodded, throwing the last lock on my trap. "That means he
knows all about this battleship."

"The subject has no knowledge of the battleship," the robot said coldly.
"All of his statements concerning the construction of this ship were
true."

Now it was my turn for the gaping and eye-popping act while Ferraro
pulled himself together. He had no idea I wasn't interested in his other
hanky-panky, but could tell I had had a low blow. It took an effort, but
I managed to get my mind back into gear and consider the evidence.

[Illustration]

If President Ferraro didn't know about the battleship, he must have
been taken in by the cover-up job. But if he wasn't responsible--who
was? Some militaristic clique that meant to overthrow him and take
power? I didn't know enough about the planet, so I enlisted Ferraro on
my side.

This was easy--even without the threat of exposure of the documents I
had found in his files. Using their disclosure as a prod I could have
made him jump through hoops. It wasn't necessary. As soon as I showed
him the different blueprints and explained the possibilities he
understood. If anything, he was more eager than I was to find out who
was using his administration as a cat