million miles, the distance from earth to the sun.

"That would be a good, safe distance, sir," Koa agreed with a grin.

"But let's suppose the Connie isn't as timid as I am," Rip went on. "He
might be only a few miles out. The question is, would he wait to get
closer before launching his snapper-boats?"

The big Hawaiian answered frankly, "I've never been in a spacegrab like
this before. I don't know what the answer is."

[Illustration: "That Connie Cruiser's Not Too Close, Koa."]

"That Connie Cruiser's Not Too Close, Koa."

"We'll soon know," Rip replied grimly. A thought had just struck him. The
_Scorpius_ had trouble finding the asteroid because it was just one of
many sailing along through the belt. But now the asteroid was the only one
traveling _across_ the belt. It would make an outstanding blip on any
radar 'scope. It wasn't possible that the Connie cruiser had missed the
blip and its significance.

"The Connie may be looking us over," Rip added, "but I can tell you one
thing for sure. He knows we've taken the asteroid." Only human hands could
swerve a heavenly body from its orbit.

Koa looked wistfully at the atomic bomb which remained. "If we had a way
to throw that thing at them...."

"But we haven't. And the thing wouldn't explode anyway. We don't have the
outside casing with an exploder mechanism, so it has to be turned on
electrically." Rip could see no way to use the atomic bomb against the
Connies. It was too big for use against a landing party. Besides, it would
put the Planeteers in danger.

"Ever have trouble with the Connies before?" he asked Koa.

"More'n once, sir. Sometimes it seems like I'll never get a job where I
don't have to fight Connies."

Rip was trained in science and Planeteer techniques and he didn't pretend
to know the ins and outs of interplanetary politics. Just the same, he
couldn't help wondering about the strange relationship between the
Consolidation of People's Governments and the Federation of Free Nations.

Connies and Feds, mostly Planeteers but sometimes spacemen, were
constantly skirmishing. They fought over property, over control of ports
on distant planets and moons, and over space salvage. Often there was
bloodshed. Sometimes there were pitched battles between groups of platoon
size.

But at that point, the struggle ended. The law of the Federation said that
no spaceship could fire on a Connie spaceship, or on Connie land bases,