little
like grabbing at a straw.

Then Alice had another thought, "By now there isn't anymore Space Ship
_Prometheus_," she said. "It has melted to a globe of incandescent
metal, kept hot by a slow atomic breakdown in its substance. But it's
sticking to the same tight orbit around Titan."

They hadn't seen it happen because by then the _Prometheus_ had passed
beyond the horizon. But the globe would circle Titan and return.

Alice kept trying to be cheerful. Bert felt a flicker of that same
mood when he said, "Sure, Allie." But then his mind dropped the
subject of the _Prometheus_. For there was too much terrible
uncertainty and human confusion to be dealt with.

Bert led Alice to the small, seldom-used airlock near the stern of the
camp ship. He had a logical hunch that Lawler would be waiting just
inside to tell them what the situation was on board.

The hunch proved true. The lock's inner door slid aside stiffly and
there was Lawler, a finger to his lips.

Quickly the Kraskows removed their radioactivity-tainted spacesuits.
Bert spoke softly.

"Well, Lawler, how do the gases that are spreading over Titan test out
chemically?"

"As was expected, Bert. Plenty of nitrogen. Some helium. Plenty of
hydrogen. A lot more oxygen. So that, as all of the hydrogen
burns--combines with it to form water-vapor--there still will be lots
of oxygen left over, floating free. Of course these gases are still so
radioactive that half a lungful would kill. Only time will tell if Doc
figured things straight. By the way, where is he?"

"Dead," Bert answered. "Murdered."

Lawler's lip curled, but he showed no surprise. "Uhunh," he grunted.
"We can't prove the sabotage of this ship's rockets, either. When we
tried to take off they just fizzled out their insides."

Then Lawler's eyes gleamed. "But," he said, "I foresaw funny business,
so I doctored the jets of Lauren's private spaceboat as a precaution.
He's still here with a couple of his stooges. He just about had
hysterics when the space cops couldn't find room for him. He's been
yelling accusations and promises of court action ever since while
trying to repair his spaceboat."

"How are the colonists taking what happened?" Bert cut in.

Lawler shrugged. "Not bad. Not good. What you'd expect. Lots of those
people are new to space. That was hard to take in itself. Add some
messy deaths, and now this. And with Lauren yelling--well--plenty of
them don't like us."

"Did anybody