Before I could answer Min kicked my foot behind the desk.

"Why, no," I said. "Is one of them broken or something?"

"Can't be sure," said Roberts. "Sometimes these rationaloids get shorts
in their DX circuits. When it happens you've got a minor criminal on
your hands."

"Usually manifests itself in petty theft," Wynn broke in. "They'll lift
stuff like wrenches or pliers and carry them around for weeks. Things
like that can get loose during flight and really gum up the works."

"We been getting some suspicious blips on the equipment around the
loading bays," Roberts went on, "but they stopped a while back. We're
checking out the research report. One of the servos must have DX'ed out
for sure and the lab boys think they know which one he is."

"This mech was clever all right," said Wynn. "Concealed the stuff he was
taking some way; that's why it took the boys in the lab so long. Now if
you don't mind we'd like to go over your robot waiting area with these
instruments. Could be he's stashing his loot out here."

In 22A they unpacked a suitcase full of meters and began flashing them
around and taking readings. Suddenly Wynn bent close over one of them
and shouted:

"Wait a sec, Roberts. I'm getting something. Yeah! This reading checks
with the lab's. Sounds like the blips're coming from those lockers back
there."

Roberts rummaged around awhile, then shouted: "Hey, Wynn, look! A lot of
parts. Well I'll be--hey--it's a female mech!"

"A what?"

"A female mech. Look for yourself."

Min and I had to act surprised too. It wasn't easy. The way they were
slamming Elizabeth's parts around made us kind of sick.

"It's a stolen robot!" Roberts announced. "Look, the identification's
been filed off. This is serious, Wynn. It's got all the earmarks of a
mech fraternization case."

"Yeah. The boys in the lab were dead right, too. No two robots ever
register the same on the meters. The contraband blips check perfectly.
It's _got_ to be this Frank Nineteen. Wait a minute, _this_ proves it.
Here's a suit of space fatigues with Nineteen's number stenciled
inside."

Inspector Roberts took a notebook out of his pocket and consulted it.
"Let's see, Nineteen's got Flight 180, he's due here at the spotel
tomorrow. Well, we'll be here too, only Nineteen won't know it. We'll
let Romeo put his plastic Juliet together and catch him
red-handed--right in the middle of the balcony scene."

Wynn laughed and picked up the girl's h