to the Belt
in spite of my warnings. You thus made things very awkward for us, upset
certain of our plans." He looked at Greg. "We don't ordinarily allow
people to upset our plans, but now we find that we're forced to include
you in our plans, whether you happen to like the idea or not."

"You're doing a lot of talking," Greg said. "Why don't you come to the
point?"

Tawney was no longer smiling. "We happen to know that your father struck
a rich lode on one of his claims."

"That's interesting," Greg said. "Did Dad tell you that?"

"He didn't have to. A man can't keep a secret like that, not for very
long. Ask your friend here, if you don't believe me. And we make it our
business to know what's going on out here. We have to, in order to
survive."

"Well, suppose you heard right. The law says that what a man finds on
his own claim is his."

"Certainly," Tawney said. "Nobody would think of claim-jumping, these
days. But when a man happens to die before he can bring in his bonanza,
then it's a question of who gets there first, wouldn't you think?"

"Not when the man is murdered," Greg said hotly, "not by a long shot."

"But you can't prove that your father was murdered."

"If I could, I wouldn't be here."

"Then I think we'll stick to the law," Tawney said, "and call it an
accident."

"And what about my brother? Was that an accident?"

"Ah, yes, your brother." Tawney's eyes hardened. "Quite a different
matter, that. Sometimes Doc tends to be over-zealous in carrying out his
assigned duties. I can assure you that he has been ... disciplined."

"That's not going to help Tom very much."

"Unfortunately not," Tawney said. "Your brother made a very foolish
move, under the circumstances. But from a practical point of view,
perhaps it's not entirely a tragedy."

"What do you mean by that?"

"From what I've heard," Tawney said, "you didn't have much use for your
twin brother. And now you certainly won't have to share your father's
legacy...."

It was too much. With a roar Greg swung at the little fat man. The blow
caught Tawney full in the jaw, jerked his head back. Greg threw his
shoulder into a hard left, slamming Tawney back against the wall. The
guard charged across the room, dragging them apart as Tawney blubbered
and tried to cover his face. Greg dug his elbow into the guard's
stomach, twisted away and started for Tawney again. Then Johnny caught
his arm and spun him around. "Stop it," he snapped. "Use