e detective looked at them for a moment in silence. These three men
represented more than just a group of businessmen who had grown uneasy
about the Government's ability to catch the Nipe; they represented more
than a few hundred or even a few thousand people who had been directly
affected by the monster's depredations. They represented the growing
feeling of unrest that was making itself known all over Earth. It was
even making itself felt out here in the Belt, although the Nipe had not,
in the past decade, shown any desire to leave Earth. Why hadn't the
beast been found? Why couldn't it be killed? Why were its raids always
so fantastically successful?

For every toothmark that inhuman thing had left on a human bone, it had
left a thousand on human minds--marks of a fear that was more than a
fear. It was a deep-seated terror of the unknown.

The number of people killed in ordinary accidents in a single week was
greater than the total number killed by the Nipe in the last decade, but
nowhere were men banding together to put a stop to that sort of death.
Accidental death was a known factor, almost a friend; the Nipe was stark
horror.

The detective said: "Gentlemen, I'm sorry, but what I said in my last
letter still goes. I can't take the job. I will not go to Earth."

Every one of the three men could sense the determination in his voice,
the utter finality of his words. There was no mistaking the iron-hard
will of the man. They knew that nothing could shake him--nothing, at
least, that they could do.

But they couldn't admit defeat. No matter how futile they knew it to be,
they still had to try.

Nguma took a billfold from his jacket pocket, opened it, and took out an
engraved sheet of paper with an embossed seal in one corner. He put it
on the desk in front of the detective.

"Would you look at that, Mr. Martin?" he asked.

The detective picked it up and looked at it. The expression on his face
did not change. "Two hundred and fifty thousand," he said, in a voice
that showed only polite interest. "A cool quarter of a million. That's a
lot of money, Mr. Nguma."

"It is," said Nguma. "As you can see, that sum has just been deposited
here, in the Belt branch of the Bank of England. It will be transferred
to your account immediately, as soon as you agree to come to Earth to
find and kill the Nipe."

The detective looked up from his inspection of the certificate. He had
known that the three men had made a visit