to believe that?" Murdock said incredulously.

"It's true!" Kenniston insisted. "My kid brother Ricky and I were
captured by John Dark's outfit several weeks ago. We were prisoners on
his ship when it was wrecked by the Patrol. After the wreck drifted
onto Vesta here, Dark wanted to send someone to Mars for
repair-equipment. He wouldn't send one of his own men in charge, for
fear the man would double-cross him and never come back.

"So he sent me, his prisoner, on that errand. Holk Or came along to
help me navigate a ship back. And I had to obey Dark and get the
equipment back here at any cost. For Dark kept my brother Ricky
prisoner here with him, and told me that if I didn't bring back that
equipment, Ricky would be shot!"

Holk Or spoke up. "It's true, what Kenniston's telling you," rumbled
the Jovian. "Me, I'm one of Dark's pirates and I don't care a curse
who knows it. But Kenniston did this only to save his brother."

"I don't believe it," said Captain Walls flatly. "It's another of the
smooth lies this fellow Kenniston makes up so easily."

* * * * *

Gloria spoke to Kenniston, her dark eyes still accusing. "If what you
say is true and you're not a pirate, then you brought all of us into
this danger simply to save your own brother?"

Kenniston looked at her miserably. "Yes, I did. I was willing to lead
you all into capture to save Ricky. But I had a reason--"

"Sure, you had a reason," Murdock said bitterly. "What did the safety
of strangers like us mean to you, compared to your precious brother?"

Captain Walls motioned Kenniston and Holk Or angrily toward the ship.
"Bray, take them in and lock them under guard in a cabin," he said.

Holk Or suddenly yelled. "Look out! There's a Vestan!"

Kenniston, his blood chilling with alarm, glanced where the Jovian
pointed. At the west edge of the clearing, a small animal had suddenly
emerged from the dense green jungle.

It was a six-legged, striped, catlike beast, not unordinary as
interplanetary animals go. But its head looked queer, seeming to have
a bulbous gray mass attached behind its ears.

Captain Walls uttered a scoffing exclamation. "That's only an ordinary
asteroid-cat."

"That _is_ a Vestan!" Kenniston cried. "Shoot at its head--"

His warning was too late. The catlike beast had launched itself in a
spring toward their group.

As its striped body shot through the air, Walls triggered his
atom-pistol. The crack