, then
indignant. "What's the idea of tying me down to this thing?"

Dasinger nodded. "I guess you're all there!" He reached down to unfasten
her from the cot. "After what happened, I wasn't so sure you'd be
entirely rational when the kwil wore off and you woke up."

Duomart paled a little. "I hadn't imagined ..." She shook her blond
head. "Well, let's skip that! I'll have nightmares for years.... What
happened to the others?"

* * * * *

Dasinger told her, concluded, "Egavine may have run into the Spy, but I
doubt it. He'll probably show up in the Hub eventually with the gems he
took from Calat, and if he doesn't get caught peddling them he may wind
up with around a million credits ... about the sixth part of what he
would have collected if he'd stopped playing crooked and trying to get
everything. I doubt the doctor will ever quit kicking himself for that!"

"Your agency gets the whole salvage fee now, eh?"

"Not exactly," Dasinger said. "Considering everything that's happened,
the Kyth Interstellar Detective Agency would have to be extremely
ungrateful if it didn't feel you'd earned the same split we were going
to give Dr. Egavine."

Miss Mines gazed at him in startled silence, flushed excitedly. "Think
you can talk the Kyth people into _that_, Dasinger?"

"I imagine so," Dasinger said, "since I own the agency. That should
finance your Willata Fleet operation very comfortably and still leave a
couple of million credits over for your old age. I doubt we'll clear
anything on Hovig's generators...."

Miss Mines looked uncomfortable. "Do you have those things aboard?"

"At the moment. Disassembled of course. Primarily I didn't want the
Fleet gang to get their hands on them. We might lose them in space
somewhere or take them back to the Federation for the scientists to poke
over. We'll discuss that on the way. Now, do you feel perky enough to
want a look at the stuff that's cost around a hundred and fifty lives
before it ever hit the Hub's markets?"

"Couldn't feel perkier!" She straightened up expectantly. "Let's see
them...."

Dasinger turned away towards the wall where he had put down the little
steel case with the loot of the Dosey Asteroids robbery.

Behind him, Duomart screamed.

He spun back to her, his face white. "What's the matter?"

Duomart was staring wide-eyed past him towards the instrument console,
the back of one hand to her mouth. "That ... the thing!"

"