the hospital for another year, then resigned, announcing that he
intended to go into private research. Before Farous died, Egavine had of
course obtained his story from him."

Miss Mines looked puzzled. "If Farous never regained his senses ..."

"Dr. Egavine is a hypnotherapist of exceptional ability," Dasinger said.
"Leed Farous wasn't so far gone that the information couldn't be pried
out of him with an understanding use of drug hypnosis."

"Then why didn't others ..."

"Oh, it was attempted. But you'll remember," Dasinger said, "that I had
a little trouble getting close to you with an antihypnotic. The good
doctor got to Farous first, that's all. Instead of the few minutes he
spent on you, he could put in hour after hour conditioning Farous. Later
comers simply didn't stand a chance of getting through to him."

* * * * *

Duomart Mines was silent a moment, then asked, "Why did you two come out
to the Willata Fleet station and hire one of our ships? Your cruiser's a
lot slower than the Mooncat but it would have got you here."

Dasinger said, "Dr. Egavine slipped up on one point. One can hardly
blame him for it since interstellar navigation isn't in his line. The
reference points on the maps he had Farous make up for him turned out to
be meaningless when compared with Federation star charts. We needed the
opportunity to check them against your Fleet maps. They make sense
then."

"I see." Duomart gave him a sideways glance, remarked, "You know, the
way you've put it, the thing's still pretty fishy."

"In what manner?"

"Dr. Egavine finished off old Farous, didn't he?"

"He may have," Dasinger conceded. "It would be impossible to prove it
now. You can't force a man to testify against himself. It's true, of
course, that Farous died at a very convenient moment, from Dr. Egavine's
point of view."

"Well," she said, "a man like that wouldn't be satisfied with half a
salvage fee when he saw the chance to quietly make away with the entire
Dosey Asteroids haul."

"That could be," Dasinger said thoughtfully. "On the other hand, a man
who had committed an unprovable murder to obtain a legal claim to six
million credits might very well decide not to push his luck any farther.
You know the space salvage ruling that when a criminal act or criminal
intent can be shown in connection with an operation like this, the
guilty person automatically forfeits any claim he has to the fee."

"Ye