ything."

"What is this?" demanded Shinny.

"You shut up!" growled Loring.

"I won't!" said Shinny, as he also rose from the table. "You may be
tough, Billy Loring, but not as tough as me!"

The two men stared at each other for a moment. Finally Loring smiled and
patted Mason's shoulder. "Sorry, Al. I guess I got a little hot for a
moment."

"Quit talking riddles," pleaded Shinny. "What's this all about?"

"Sit down," said Loring.

They sank back into their chairs.

"It's simple," said Mason fearfully. "Loring wants to steal a
spaceship."

"A pirate job!" said Shinny. He drew in his breath sharply. "You must be
outta your mind!"

"You've called yourself in on this," Loring reminded him. "And you're
staying in."

"Oh, no!" Shinny's voice dropped to a husky, frightened whisper. "Deal's
off. I ain't gonna spend the rest of my life on a prison asteroid!"

"Shinny, you know too much!" Loring's hand darted toward the blaster he
wore at his belt.

"Your secret's safe with me. I give you my spaceman's word on it," said
Shinny, pushing back his chair. Abruptly getting to his feet, he
scrambled rapidly out the door of the Cafe Cosmos.

"Loring," said Mason, "get him. You can't let him ..."

"Forget it," shot back the other. "He won't break his spaceman's oath.
Not Shinny." He got up. "Come on, Mason. We haven't got much time before
the _Annie Jones_ blasts off."

"What are we gonna do?" the shorter man wanted to know.

"Stow away on the cargo deck. Then, when we get out into space, we dump
the pilots and head for Tara, for our first load of copper."

"But a job like this'll take money!"

"We'll make enough to go ahead on the first load."

Mason began to get up, hesitated, and then sat down again.

"Come on," snapped Loring. His hand dropped toward his belt. "I'm going
to make you rich, Mason," he said quietly. "I'm going to make you one of
the richest men in the universe--even if I have to kill you first."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 7

"Space freighter _Antares_ from Venus space station. Your approach
course is one-nine-seven--corrected. Reduce speed to minimum thrust and
approach spaceport nine--landing-deck three. End transmission!"

Tom stood on the dais of the traffic-control room and switched the
_Antares_ beam to one of his assistants at the monitors in the control
room. In less than two weeks he had mastered the difficult
traffic-control procedure to the point where Captain Stefens ha