rickiest man at beguiling!

"Do not touch me, De Boer! He tried that. He held my hand in the
moonlight--to woo me with his clever words."

"Hah! Grant, you hear her?"

"And I find him now not a man, but a craven--"

"But you will find me a man, Jetta." De Boer was hugely amused. "See
Grant, we are rivals! You and Perona, then you and me. It is well for
you that I fear you not, or I would run my knife through you now."

I could not mistake Jetta's shudder. But De Boer did not see it, for
she covered it by impulsively putting her hand upon his arm.

"Did you--did you kill my father?" She stumbled over the question. But
she asked it with a childlike innocence sufficiently real to convince
him.

"I? Why--" He recovered from his surprise. "Why no, little bird. Who
told you that I did?"

"No one. I--no one has said anything about it." She added slowly, "I
hoped that it was not you, De Boer."

"Me? Oh no: it was an accident." He shot me a menacing glance. "I will
explain it all. Jetta. Your father and I were friends for years--"

"Yes. I know. Often he spoke to me of you. Many times I asked him to
let me meet you."

* * * * *

They were ignoring me. But Gutierrez, lurking in the door oval, was
not: I was well aware of that.

"I remember you from years ago, little Jetta."

"And I remember you."

I understand the rationality of her purpose. She could easily get De
Beer's confidence. She had known him when a child. Her father had been
his business partner, presumably his friend. And I saw her now
cleverly altering her status here. She had been a captive, allied with
me. She was changing that. She was now Spawn's daughter, here with her
dead father's friend.

She turned a gaze of calm aversion upon me. "Unless you want him here,
De Boer. I would rather talk to you--without him."

He leaped to his feet. "Hah! that pleases me, little Jetta! Gutierrez,
take this fellow away."

The Spanish-American came slouching forward. "The girl's an old
friend, Commander? You never told me that."

"Because it is no business of yours. Take him away. Seal him in
D-cubby."

I said sullenly. "I misjudged both of you."

Jetta's gaze avoided me. As Gutierrez shoved me roughly down the
corridor, De Boer laughed, and his voice came back: "Do not be afraid.
We will find some safe way of ransoming you--dead or alive!"

I was flung on a bunk in one of the corridor cubbies, and the door
sealed upon