declared. His small eyes gleamed with
secret humor. "You're going to find lots of adventure there, my lad."

When Mrs. Milsom had dragged the others away for the usual afternoon
game of "dimension bridge," the Jovian looked after them, chuckling.

"This crowd of idiots hadn't ought to have ever left Earth. What a
surprise they're going to get on Vesta!"

"They're not such a bad bunch, at bottom," Kenniston said
halfheartedly. "Just a lot of ignorant kids looking for adventure."

"Bah, you're falling for the Loring girl," scoffed Holk Or. "You'd
better keep your mind on John Dark's orders."

Kenniston made a warning gesture. "Cut it! Here comes Murdock."

Hugh Murdock came straight along the deck toward them, and his sober,
clean-cut young face wore a puzzled look as he halted before them.

"Kenniston, there's something about this I can't understand," he
declared.

"Yes? What's that?" returned Kenniston guardedly.

He was very much on the alert. Murdock was not a heedless, gullible
youngster like the others. He was, Kenniston had learned, an already
important official in the Loring Radium company.

From the chaffing the others gave Murdock, it was evident that the
young business man had joined the party only because he was in love
with Gloria. There was something likeable about the dogged devotion of
the sober young man. His very obvious determination to protect
Gloria's safety, and his intelligence, made him dangerous in
Kenniston's eyes.

"I was down in the hold looking over the equipment you loaded," Hugh
Murdock was saying. "You know, the stuff we're to use to dig out the
wreck of Dark's ship. And I can't understand it--there's no digging
machinery, but simply a lot of cyclotrons, rocket-tubes and spare
plates."

Kenniston smiled to cover the alarm he felt. "Don't worry, Murdock, I
loaded just the equipment we'll need. You'll see when we reach Vesta."

Murdock persisted. "But I still don't see how that stuff is going to
help. It's more like ship-repair stores than anything else."

Kenniston lied hastily. "The cycs are for power-supply, and the
rocket-tubes and plates are to build a heavy duty power-hoist to jack
the wreck out of the mud. Holk Or and I have got that all figured
out."

Murdock frowned as though still unconvinced, but dropped the subject.
When he had gone off to join the others, Holk Or glared after him.

"That fellow's too smart for his own good," muttered the Jovian. "He's
suspici