ality of his
house, but I can at least offer you chairs."

Keen brown eyes surveyed them. "You are both very young, eh? What are
you doing here?"

"Working," Scotty answered. "I'm in vehicle maintenance and Rick is in
Pegasus electronics."

"So? It is an exciting place in which to work. Even I, a fireman, feel
this excitement. Tell me, do you think this _hombre de terra_, this
Earthman, was the cause of the tragedy this morning? I call it a
tragedy, because it was so. So much work, so much love went into that
rocket! _Sangre de Cristo!_ It was a terrible thing."

"No one seems to know for sure," Rick replied. "The project officer
couldn't say. But there was no Earthman picture."

The bandaged hands spread expressively. "A picture could have been
burned. Now perhaps we will never know. You understand, I have thought
much about this thing. Once I believed this Earthman made the rockets go
bad because he must think such things are against the will of God. But
when I heard of the thefts, I no longer thought so. I thought about how
a thief could take his stolen wealth from this guarded place."

"We've wondered about that, too," Scotty said.

"You decided something?"

Rick leaned forward on his chair. Luis Hermosa had started him thinking
again.

"The thief couldn't get his stolen goods from the base if he went
through a gate in his own car, could he?"

"He would not dare," Luis replied, "because he knows the guards check
the trunks of cars, and sometimes even look under seats. He might be
unlucky. He would know this."

"Spot check," Scotty nodded.

Rick hadn't known about the spot check, but it made sense. He continued,
"So there's only one way. The thief has to take the stolen supplies from
the base in an official vehicle."

"Such vehicles are not checked," Luis agreed excitedly. "But also, such
vehicles are not taken far from this camp. If a truck, say, were gone
too long, would it not be noticed?"

"It certainly would," Scotty stated.

"There must be only a few places where the thief could go," Rick said
thoughtfully. "When he reaches one, he must hide his stolen goods and
leave them. Later, by traveling a long way to reach the spot from the
main road, he could get the stolen stuff with his own car. Or, maybe
someone from outside who doesn't work on the base at all could go to the
hiding place and pick them up. Can you think of any other way?"

Luis and Scotty couldn't, and said so.

Rick asked, "Wh