nized them all.
Two were SSP's--Space Service Police.

* * * * *

When the colonel got close, Lance tossed off a salute and an insouciant
grin: "Well, the Prodigal made it back home, sir. Hope that pessimistic
daughter of yours is stashed around somewhere. Otherwise--"

"Otherwise, what?" returned the colonel, unsmiling.

"Why I'm liable to go busting right through that fence," said Lance.
"And say, if anybody's worrying about the _Cosmos XII_, she flew like a
dream, colonel. Matter of fact, she--"

Colonel Sagen's jaws snapped together. Wheeling, he barked at the two
SSP's: "Spacemen, arrest this officer! Immediately!"

Lance couldn't believe his ears.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he protested. "What have I done?"

Nobody answered. Not at first.

"Well?" Lance asked again, a little more uneasy this time.

"I have no daughter, major," Hard-Head Sagen growled, standing with his
legs braced apart and his ramrod shoulders looking businesslike. "I
never have had."

The space cops sprang forward. One drew a pistol, held it on the
returned pilot, while the other quickly moved behind Lance and pinioned
his arms back.

"Is this a joke, colonel?" Lance demanded, struggling. "If it is, I
don't appreciate it. You know you've got a daughter, and I'm going to
marry her!"

The colonel's jaws clamped tight; and he shook his head from side to
side, as if he were dealing with a person suddenly out of his mind. Then
he acted.

"Put this man under close confinement," he ordered Lance's guards.
"Allow no visitors of any kind." The colonel's tone was harsh and
worried. "I've got to buck this matter to HQ. We can't have it blow up
right now, God knows."

The space police nudged Lance. "All right, major. Let's go."

Lance's anger seethed to a boil. Hunching his shoulders, he rammed back
against the guard holding him, sending him tumbling. What was inside his
mind to do if he managed an escape, he couldn't have told. He only knew
he had to get away. The colonel had flipped.

And where, by the way, was Carolyn? It seemed impossible she could be in
on it, too.

He stood free for a moment, watching warily.

"Hold him!" shouted Colonel Sagen. "Don't let him run loose."

"We got gas pills, colonel," suggested the space cop Lance had bowled
over. The man was rising to his feet.

"Use them."

Lance started to run. Over his shoulder, he saw the guard reach inside a
small pocket in his webbed pisto