Without a word, the
little company man walked to the intercom speaker on the wall. He spoke
sharply into it, waited, then had a brief, pungent conversation with
someone. Then he turned back to Greg, his face heavy with suspicion.
"You saw these papers?"

"Certainly I saw them. I didn't have time to read them through, but what
else could they be?"

"Let me warn you," Tawney said coldly, "if I send a crew out there on a
wild goose chase, the party will be over when they get back, do you
understand? You've been given every consideration. If this is a fool's
errand, you'll pay for it very dearly." He turned on his heel, snarled
at one of the guards. "I want them watched every minute," he said. "One
of you stay with them constantly. It won't take long to find out if this
is a stall...."

He stalked out, and the hatchway clanged behind him. One guard went
along; the big one with the stunner stayed behind, eyeing his prisoners
unpleasantly. The stunner was in his hand, the safety off.

Johnny Coombs started across the room toward the kitchennette, passing
close to the guard. Suddenly he turned, swung his fist heavily down on
the guard's neck. The stunner crackled, but Greg had jumped aside.
Another blow from Johnny's fist sent the gun flying. Another blow, and
the guard's legs slid out from under him. He fell unconscious to the
floor.

In an instant they were across the room, lifting down the grill, helping
Tom out of his hiding place. "Okay, boy," Johnny said to Greg, "I guess
you pulled the trigger with that story of yours."

"Not me," Greg said. "Tom did. He's the one that showed us the way
out ... the same way he came in."

* * * * *

The guard was out for a while, they made sure of that first. Then there
was a hasty consultation. "The airlocks are guarded," Johnny said, "and
if they tumble to the ventilator shafts, they can smoke us out in no
time. How are we going to get a scout-ship without showing ourselves?
For that matter, how are we going to get a scout-ship away from here
without being blown up the way the _Scavenger_ was blown up?"

"I think I know a way," Tom said. "We have to have something to keep a
lot of the crew busy. If we could get to the ship's generators and put
them out of commission somehow, it might do it."

"Why?" Greg wanted to know.

"Because of the air supply," Tom said. "Without the generators, the fans
won't run. They'll have to get a crew to fix them