d forward to accept his share. He
carried a long, thin knife with an edge so deadly keen that he could and
often did shave with it.

Coxine continued his roll call. "Sam Bates! Five hundred credits.
Straight share."

Bates stepped forward and glared at Coxine.

"How come I only get five hundred and the others get a thousand?" he
snarled. "It ain't my fault I'm stuck on the power deck while you grab
all the glory jobs!"

The laughing, excited crowd of men grew silent as the rebellious
spaceman faced Coxine.

"You get five hundred credits," snarled Coxine. "Take it or leave it!"

"I want the same as Brooks and Attardi," demanded Bates.

Quicker than the eye could follow, Coxine rose and smashed the man in
the face with a giant fist. Bates dropped to the deck like a stone.
Coxine glared at the rest of the crew.

"The next crawler that thinks he's not getting his fair share," he
snarled, "will get a trip in space for his share!" He glanced down at
the unconscious man and jerked his thumb toward the hatch. "Get him out
of here!"

Two men dragged the unconscious man away and threw a bucket of cold
water on him. He woke up, snatched at his share of the credits, and
disappeared from the room.

The pirate captain continued reading the list of names, arbitrarily,
handing out various amounts of the stolen money as he saw fit.

Standing in the rear of the messroom, hidden by the other members of the
crew, Tom realized that to step in plain sight of Wallace and Simms for
his share would mean instant betrayal. He had to make his move now, and
with most of the crew mustered together in the messroom, it was his one
chance for success.

Gripping the stolen paralo-ray gun in his jacket pocket, he slipped out
of the messroom unnoticed and headed for the radar bridge.

As he raced up the companionway he could hear the laughter of the men
below decks as one by one they received their shares. His name would be
called soon. Heart pounding, he stopped outside the radar hatch, pulled
the paralo-ray gun from his jacket, and taking a deep breath opened the
hatch.

Joe Brooks was seated in front of the scanner counting his share
greedily and glancing occasionally at the finger of light that swept
across the green globe. When Tom opened the hatch, he looked up and
smiled.

"Hiya, Kid," he said. "Coxine's all right. I got a thousand just for
picking up that ship on the radar. How much did you collect?"

"This," said Tom. He sho