lmly at the table drinking his
beer, and Lee Treynor who sat watching him.

"What are you going to do?" she finally asked.

"I don't know. What _can_ I do?" Marc said.

"Good heavens!" the girl exploded. "Are you just going to sit there
guzzling beer while pirates take over the town?" She stared at him
incredulously.

"What do you suggest I do?" the comptroller asked. "We haven't anything
to fight with. There's no way we can get help. As far as I can see
there's nothing we _can_ do--not yet anyway." He calmly lifted his
glass.

"You mean we're just going to _sit_ here?" the girl gaped.

"Sure. The others left to hide their money and valuables. I've got
nothing to hide."

"What about that stuff the Navy has cached in their warehouse?" Lee
asked. "That new rocket fuel their destroyers use when they need a
little extra push. Isn't that worth hiding?"

"The hyper-degenerate-thorium, you mean? I'd like to hide that
somewhere," Marc conceded. "But where do you hide ten tons of stuff in
five minutes? Besides, it wouldn't do the raiders any good. Too hot.
It'll burn out their jets. They'd go up like an A-bomb two minutes after
they threw it on. They know that. Only thing they could do with it is
sell it to Venus. Not that that would be bad. Shortage of H.D.T.'s may
be the chief reason why there's been no war started yet. But for now
there's nothing you and I can do." Calmly he lit a cigarette.

"Of course," he went on, smiling, "we _could_ bum a ride out with some
of the company men. No doubt they're all hightailing it away from here
in their space-buggies."

"I'm surprised," Lee said with a trace of sarcasm, "that you're not
doing just that, leaving me and the other women to the beasts!"

Marc eyed her unblinkingly. "You know as well as I do that most of the
females on this asteroid take pirates in their stride. They might even
welcome a change of partners. As for you"--he paused--"you stick close
to me and keep your pretty mouth shut. I think we'll manage somehow."

In silence they walked back to the comptroller's office.

"Marc," Lee said as they entered, "what about the new radar? Maybe we
could get a message out with it, in code or something."

"What?" Marc turned, astonished. "You want to play our only hole-card on
an off-chance like that? There aren't more than four or five people
here who even know it's been set up on the other side of the asteroid.
There's hardly a chance the raiders will find out abou