se, it wouldn't necessarily save the
Star."

"No," Quillan said, "but it's worth trying if we can't think of
something better. How would you get them inside?"

"We could crowd twenty men into one of those diner trucks, and Heraga
could take us in."

"What kind of people are your pals?"

"A few smugglers and confidence men I've had connections with. Fairly
good boys for this sort of thing. Then there's an old millionaire
sportsman, with a party of six, waiting to transfer to the _Camelot_
for a safari on Jontarou. Old Philmarron isn't all there, in my
opinion, but he's dead game and loves any kind of a ruckus. We can
count on him and his friends, if they're not too drunk at the moment.
Still ... that's not too many to set against something less than a
hundred professional guns, even though some of them must be down on
the two ships."

"No, not enough." Quillan looked thoughtful. "What's the other idea?"

"Let the cat out of the bag generally. Tell the guests and the
employees out here what's going on, and see if somebody can think of
something that might be done."

He shook his head. "What you'd set off with that would be anywhere
between a riot and a panic. The boys in the Executive Block would
simply give us the breathless treatment. Apparently, they prefer to
have everything looking quiet and normal when the _Camelot_ gets
here--"

"But they don't have to play it that way," Reetal agreed. "We might be
dead for hours before the liner docks. If they keep the landing lock
closed until what they want has been unloaded, nobody on the _Camelot_
would realize what had happened before it was too late."

* * * * *

There was a moment's silence. Then Quillan said, "You mentioned you'd
picked up a clue to what they're after. What was that?"

"Well, that's a curious thing," Reetal said. "On the trip out here, a
young girl name of Solvey Kinmarten attached herself to me. She didn't
want to talk much, but I gathered she was newly married, and that her
husband was on board and was neglecting her. She's an appealing little
thing, and she seemed so forlorn and upset that I adopted her for the
rest of the run. After we arrived, of course, I pretty well forgot
about the Kinmartens and their troubles.

"A few hours ago, Solvey suddenly came bursting into the suite where
I'm registered. She was shaking all over. After I calmed her down a
bit, she spilled out her story. She and her husband, Br