atress
and tolerantly understanding idol.

* * * * *

The work, which had never moved at any very fast pace, went more and
more slowly. Three weeks crawled past.

Most of the crews and all of the teams except the First were working on
side issues--tasks which, while important in and of themselves, had very
little to do with the project's main problem. Hilton, even without
Sandra's help, was all caught up. All the reports had been analyzed,
correlated, cross-indexed and filed--except those of the First Team.
Since he could not understand anything much beyond midpoint of the first
tape, they were all reposing in a box labeled PENDING.

The Navy had torn fifteen of the Oman warships practically to pieces,
installing Terran detectors and trying to learn how to operate Oman
machinery and armament. In the former they had succeeded very well; in
the latter not at all.

Fifteen Oman ships were now out in deep space, patrolling the void in
strict Navy style. Each was manned by two or three Navy men and several
hundred Omans, each of whom was reveling in delight at being able to do
a job for a Master, even though that Master was not present in person.

Several Strett skeleton-ships had been detected at long range, but the
detections were inconclusive. The things had not changed course, or
indicated in any other way that they had seen or detected the Oman
vessels on patrol. If their detectors were no better than the Omans',
they certainly hadn't. That idea, however, could not be assumed to be a
fact, and the detections had been becoming more and more frequent.
Yesterday a squadron of seven--the first time that anything except
singles had appeared--had come much closer than any of the singles had
ever done. Like all the others, however, these passers-by had not paid
any detectable attention to anything Oman; hence it could be inferred
that the skeletons posed no threat.

But Sawtelle was making no such inferences. He was very firmly of the
opinion that the Stretts were preparing for a massive attack.

Hilton had assured Sawtelle that no such attack could succeed, and Larry
had told Sawtelle why. Nevertheless, to keep the captain pacified,
Hilton had given him permission to convert as many Oman ships as he
liked; to man them with as many Omans as he liked; and to use ships and
Omans as he liked.

Hilton was not worried about the Stretts or the Navy. It was the First
Team. It was the bottlene