"I can't
help what you want or don't want, Merrill, I can only report what we've
found, and that's nothing at all. Every one of those claims has been
searched twice over. Doc and his boys went over them, and we didn't find
anything they missed. I think you're barking up the wrong tree."

"There's _got_ to be something," Tawney said, his voice tight with
anger. "Hunter couldn't have taken anything away from there, he didn't
have a chance to. You read the reports..."

"I know," the other said wearily, "I know what the reports said."

"Then what he found is still there. There's no other possibility,"
Tawney said.

"We went over that rock with a microscope. We blew it to shreds. Assay
has gone through the fragments literally piece by piece. They found low
grade iron, a trace of nickel, a little tin, and lots of granite. If we
never found anything richer than that, we'd have been out of business
ten years ago."

There was a long silence. Tom pressed closer to the grill. Then he heard
Tawney slam his fist into his palm. "You know what Roger Hunter's doing,
don't you?" he said. "He's making fools of us, that's what! The man's
dead, and he's making us look like idiots. If we hadn't been so sure we
had the lode spotted ..." He broke off. "Well, that's done, we can't
undo it. But this brat of his...."

"Any luck there?"

"Not a word. He's playing coy."

"Maybe he doesn't know anything. Doc made a bad mistake when he blasted
the other one ... suppose _he_ was the only one that knew."

"All right, it was a mistake," Tawney snapped. "What was he supposed to
do, let him get back to Mars? We've got a good front there, but it's not
that good. If the United Nations gets a toehold out here, the whole Belt
will go into their pocket, you realize that. They're waiting for us to
make one slip." He paused, and Tom heard him pacing the compartment.
"But I think we've got our boy. This one knows. We've been spoiling him
so far, that's all. Well, now we start digging. When I get through with
him, he'll be begging us to let him tell. You just watch me, as soon as
the okay comes through...."

Tom drew back from the grill, moving on in the darkness. So far he had
not rushed his exploration ... there was a chance to use the ducts for
escape, he wanted to know them well. But now he knew the hour was
getting late. So far Greg and Johnny had been stalling Tawney ... but
Tawney was getting impatient.

He moved quickly and he thought again