rsuit of
a wild goose.

Commander Frank, therefore, could only recruit men who were willing to
take a chance, who were willing to risk anything, even their lives,
against tremendously long odds.

And, even if they succeeded, the Imperial Government would take twenty
per cent of the gross without so much as a by-your-leave. There was no
other market for the metal except back home, so the tax could not be
avoided; gold was no good whatsoever in the uncharted wilds of an alien
world.

Because of his lack of funds, the commander's expedition was not only
dangerously undermanned, but illegally so. It was only by means of
out-and-out trickery that he managed to evade the official inspection
and leave port with too few men and too little equipment.

There wasn't a scientist worthy of the name in the whole outfit, unless
you call the navigator, Captain Bartholomew, an astronomer, which is
certainly begging the question. There was no anthropologist aboard to
study the semibarbaric civilization of the natives; there was no
biologist to study the alien flora and fauna. The closest thing the
commander had to physicists were engineers who could take care of the
ship itself--specialist technicians, nothing more.

There was no need for armament specialists; each and every man was a
soldier, and, as far as his own weapons went, an ordnance expert. As far
as Commander Frank was concerned, that was enough. It had to be.

Mining equipment? He took nothing but the simplest testing apparatus.
How, then, did he intend to get the metal that the Empire was screaming
for?

The commander had an answer for that, too, and it was as simple as it
was economical. The natives would get it for him.

They used gold for ornaments, therefore, they knew where the gold could
be found. And, therefore, they would bloody well dig it out for
Commander Frank.

IV

Due to atmospheric disturbances, the ship's landing was several hundred
miles from the point the commander had originally picked for the
debarkation of his troops. That meant a long, forced march along the
coast and then inland, but there was no help for it; the ship simply
wasn't built for atmospheric navigation.

That didn't deter the commander any. The orders rang through the ship:
"All troops and carriers prepare for landing!"

Half an hour later, they were assembled outside the ship, fully armed
and armored, and with full field gear. The sun, a yellow G-O star, hung
hotly