old freighter. We've
got four million sunk in her so far, so she'd better check out roj."

He put his hand on Tee's shoulder. "You're not worried about testing
her, are you? You've been jumpy lately."

"Oh, no, nothing like that, Mr. Jenner. I'm just ... well, I've been up
all night watching them install the gyroscopes. Think I'll get some
sleep." He yawned.

Jenner cupped his chin in his palm and stood staring after the
retreating figure. As Tee turned and looked back nervously, Jenner
entered the hangar office. He spoke softly into the visiphone and in a
moment the screen lit up.

"Is this the prison administrator?" asked Jenner.

"What can I do for you?"

"My name is Jenner; Consolidated Spacecraft."

"Yes?"

"Suppose an escaped prisoner from Hades landed on Aurora?"

"_No one_ escapes from Hades Prison."

"Well, just suppose one did?"

"I never receive information about escapees."

"But you're the administrator here."

"My job, as the title implies, is purely administrative. I merely
arrange transportation for our annual shipment of prisoners to Hades,
and see that the records are kept straight."

"But whom _would_ they contact in the event of an escape?"

The administrator pursed his lips in impatience. "Hades has six billion
prisoners at any given time. If one did manage to escape, they couldn't
very well alert a million planets."

"You mean you wouldn't do anything?"

"As I said before, my job is purely administrative. Out of my
jurisdiction entirely. Each planet has its own police force and handles
its internal crime in its own way. What's legal on Aurora might very
well be illegal on ten thousand other planets, and vice versa."

"I see. Thank you." Jenner cut the connection slowly. He flicked the
switch open again, hesitated, and then closed it.

* * * * *

He walked out to where his gyrocar was parked, and in a few minutes set
it down on the roof of Tee's hotel. Tee was just entering the lobby as
Jenner came in and they went up to his room together.

"I'll come right to the point, Tee," he said, as soon as the door had
closed. "I just talked to the local prison administrator for Hades." He
looked closely at Tee.

"What's that got to do with me?" asked Tee, belligerently.

"Wait until I finish," said Jenner, curtly. "I hired you to test-hop our
new ship because you were the best pilot available. I'm not interested
in your past, but most of the company