ary loss as well as the company
losses. But he wasn't saying a word. He was keeping his misery to
himself.

Let him stew until morning, I thought. By then he should be ripe for
the little package I was planning to hand him.

* * * * *

By morning, the confidence that I had the night before had pretty much
dissipated. Nevertheless, I followed Goil from the dining hall to his
quarters, giving him only time to complete any personal necessities
before knocking on his door.

Some of my confidence returned when I entered the room. He looked as
if he hadn't slept any at all. The impending doom of his Mars holdings
had apparently dwelt with him most intimately the past night.

Goil said, "What's on your mind, Mr. Weston?"

"I had a talk with Willy last night. He wants to tell you everything."

Goil brightened slightly. "Fine," he said.

"I've taken the liberty of asking him to come here," I said.

Goil nodded.

This was a good chance for me to needle him a little more, so I said,
"The news reports are not good this morning. That freighter will have
to be abandoned sometime this evening if they don't get it off the
course it's on now."

Goil dimmed again. He said, "I heard the news."

"There is no way they can jettison that cargo either. Strange, isn't
it. Of all the other points in and around space, that ship has got to
pick Mars to smack into, and the only densely populated part of Mars
at that. Fate, I guess."

"Not so strange," said Goil. "It was enroute to Mars."

"Sure," I said, "but a course usually includes a series of corrections
for a haul like that."

Goil said, "No navigator-computer combination is good enough to plan a
one-shot course like that. It's just an unfortunate coincidence that
the industrial area is to be hit."

And those last words were just what I wanted to hear from him.

Willy knocked on the door and entered at Goil's request. Willy's face
was long, and the few steps that carried him into the room seemed to
draw on his last reserves of energy. He seemed a little grateful when
Goil bade him be seated.

Goil said, "All right, Willy. Sam says you have something to tell me."

"Yes, sir," Willy said dolefully, shifting his gaze so that he did not
have to look directly at Goil or me. He hesitated for moments, then
when the silence was too thick, he continued.

"I--I took that generator and that energizer as I told you yesterday."
Again he paused, paten