ary circumstances, about all I had to
do. And it took only a few minutes every twelve hours.

I had a moment with Carter in the isolation of his chart room.

"This voyage! Gregg, I'm getting like you--too fanciful. We've a normal
group of passengers apparently, but I don't like the look of any of
them. That Ob Hahn, at your table--"

"Snaky looking fellow," I commented. "He and the Englishman are great
on arguments. Did you have Princes' cabin searched?"

My breath hung on his answer.

"Yes. Nothing unusual among his things. We searched both his room and
his sister's."

I did not follow that up. Instead I told him about the burn on Miko's
thick arm.

He stared. "I wish we were at Ferrok-Shahn. Gregg, tonight when the
passengers are asleep, come here to me. Snap will be here, and Dr.
Frank. We can trust him."

"He knows about--about the Grantline treasure?"

"Yes. And so do Balch and Blackstone." Balch and Blackstone were our
first and second officers.

"We'll all meet here, Gregg--say about the zero hour. We must take
some precautions."

Then he dismissed me.

I found Venza seated alone in a starlit corner of the secluded deck. A
porthole, with the black heavens and the blazing stars was before her.
There was an empty seat nearby.

She greeted me with the Venus form of jocular, intimate greeting:

"Hola-lo, Gregg! Sit here with me. I have been wondering when you
would come after me."

I sat down beside her. "Why are you going to Mars, Venza? I'm glad to
see you."

"Many thanks. But I am glad to see you, Gregg. So handsome a man. Do
you know, from Venus to Earth, and I have no doubt on all of Mars, no
man will please me more."

"Glib tongue," I laughed. "Born to flatter the male--every girl of
your world." And I added seriously, "You don't answer my question.
What takes you to Mars?"

"Contract. By the stars, what else? Of course, a chance to make a
voyage with you--"

"Don't be silly, Venza."

I enjoyed her. I gazed at her small, slim figure reclining in the deck
chair. Her long, gray robe parted by design, I have no doubt, to
display her shapely, satin-sheathed legs. Her black hair was coiled in
a heavy knot at the back of her neck; her carmine lips were parted
with a mocking, alluring smile. The exotic perfume of her enveloped
me.

She glanced at me sidewise from beneath her sweeping black lashes.

"Be serious," I added.

"I am serious. Sober. Intoxicated by you, but sober."

I said,