awyers can muddy the waters quite enough so that little details like
that are overlooked. Particularly with a sympathetic jury and a judge
that plays along."

He stood up and ran his hand through his hair. "All right, granted I'm
painting the worst picture possible ... but I'm afraid that's the way
it's going to be. I believe your story, don't worry about that. I know
why you went out there to the Belt and I can't really blame you, I
suppose. But you were asking for trouble, and that's what you got.
Frankly, I am amazed that you ever returned to Mars, and how you managed
to make rubble of an orbit-ship with a crew of four hundred men trying
to stop you is more than I can comprehend. But you did it. All right,
fine. You were justified; they attacked you, held you prisoner,
threatened you. Fine. They'd have cut your throats in another few hours,
perhaps. Fine. I believe you. But there's one big question that you
can't answer, and unless you can no court in the Solar System will
listen to you."

"What question?" Tom said.

"The question of motives," the Major replied. "You had plenty of motive
for doing what Tawney says you did. But what motive did Jupiter
Equilateral have, if your story is true?"

"They wanted to get what Dad found, out in the Belt."

"Ah, yes, that mysterious bonanza that Roger Hunter found. I was afraid
that was what you'd say. And it's the reason that Jupiter Equilateral is
going to win this fight, and you're going to lose it."

"I don't think I understand," Tom said slowly.

"I mean that I'm going to have to testify against you," the Major said.
"_Because your father didn't find a thing in the Asteroid Belt_, and I
happen to know it."

* * * * *

"It's been a war," the Major said later, "a dirty vicious war with no
holds barred and no quarter given. Not a shooting war, of course,
nothing out in the open ... but a war just the same, with the highest
stakes of any war in history.

"It didn't look like a war, at first," the Major went on. "Back when the
colonies were being built, nobody really believed that anything of value
would come of them ... scientific outposts, perhaps, places for
laboratories and observatories, not much more. The colonies were placed
under United Nations control. Nobody argued about it.

"And then things began to change. There was wealth out here ... and
opportunities for power. With the overpopulation at home, Earth was
looking more a