off later got full fanfare. I suppose
there will be a dozen Patrol ships converging on this spot in a few
hours, expecting to surprise a Jupiter Equilateral ship making a
desperate attempt to hijack your little treasure here."

The little fat man laughed cheerfully. "Unfortunately for you," he
added, "we have many friends on Mars ... including a man in the Map
room ... and I'm afraid your little trap isn't going to work after all."

The Major's face was gray. "How did you get here?"

"By hitch-hiking. How else? Most uncomfortable, back there, even with a
pile of pressure suits for padding, but your pilot was really very
skillful."

Johnny Coombs turned on the Major. "What does he mean, a trap? I don't
get this...."

The Major sighed wearily. "I had to try to force his hand. Even if we
found what we were looking for, we had no case that could stand up
against them. We needed _proof_ ... and I thought that with this as bait
we could trap them. He's right about the Patrol ships ... but they won't
be near for hours."

"And that will be a little late to help," Tawney said pleasantly.

The Major glared at him. "Maybe so ... but you've gone too far this
time. This is an official U.N. ship. You'll never be able to go back to
Mars."

"Really?" the fat man said. "And why not? Officially I'm on Mars right
now, with plenty of people to swear to the fact." He chuckled. "You seem
to forget that little matter of proof, Major. When your Patrol ships
find a gutted ship and five corpses, they may suspect that something
more than an accident was involved, but what can they prove? Nothing
more than they could prove in the case of Roger Hunter's accident.
Scout-ships have been known to explode before."

He ran his hand over the metal cylinder. "And as for this ... it's
really a surprise. Of course when we failed to find any evidence of
mining activity, we were certain that Roger Hunter's bonanza was
something more than a vein of ore, but _this_! You can be certain that
we will exploit the secret of a star-drive to the very fullest."

"How do you think you can get away with it?" the Major said. "Turning up
with something like that right after a whole series of suspicious
accidents in space?"

"Oh, we aren't as impatient as some people. We wouldn't be so foolish as
to break the news now. Five years from now, maybe ten years, one of our
orbit-ships will happen upon a silvery capsule on one of our asteroid
claims, that's all. I wo