course."

"Look at both a little closer," Hawkes suggested, "and see if you
don't notice something else."

Johnson studied the pictures. "There's no doubt about the first," he
murmured. "Evidently I'm supposed to recognize the other also."
Abruptly he sat erect. "They're both the same man," he exclaimed.
"Only in the second picture he's clean-shaven."

Hawkes nodded. "There's a story about those two pictures," he said.
"But first, let me fill you in on some background. You know that
Interplanets has branches on more than a thousand worlds. Because of
this widespread operation it's particularly vulnerable to robbery. But
it would cost more than the Company's earnings to post adequate guards
on every station. And it would be impractical to depend on the
protection of the local governments, many of which are extremely
primitive. On the other hand, allowing themselves to be robbed with
impunity would be financial suicide."

Johnson nodded. "Of course."

"That," Hawkes continued, "is where the Company's Secret Service
comes in. It never lets up on the effort it will make to solve a
robbery and bring the perpetrators to justice. And it never quits,
once it begins an investigation. That policy has proven very effective
in discouraging thievery. During the Company's entire tenure there
have been less than a dozen unsolved thefts--and two of them occurred
right here on Marlock."

"I was a clerk with the Company at the time of the second," Johnson
said reminiscently. "Been with them about three years then. That must
have been over twenty years ago. I...." He paused and looked down. "I
remember," he said. "The picture without the beard.... That's the
thief. The photograph was taken by one of the automatic cameras set up
for just that purpose; we still use them. But they never found the
man."

"That's right," Hawkes agreed. "That robbery occurred a little over
twenty years ago. And the other picture you have was taken at the time
of the first robbery--approximately twenty-five years before that."

"But it isn't possible," Johnson protested. "These pictures are of the
same man. And there's obviously no twenty-five year spread in age
between them. Unless...."

"Unless one is the other's father, or a relative that resembles him
very closely?" Hawkes finished. "Look at the pictures again. There's
the same scar on both foreheads, the same pock-mark on the right
cheek; our special section has even made measurements of the
c