the
rail, cackled insanely. As Scott stepped slowly toward it, the cat
hissed, bounded off the rail, and down the steps to the engine room
floor.

Scott shook his head. "You're not going to catch them by hand. Better
let them settle down, Durval."

"Settle down." The Chief brought the palm of his hand down on the rail.
The rail trembled. "They've already settled down. On every generator in
the place. One of them crawled under the main relay switch and shorted
out half the board. Didn't hurt him a bit."

Scott interrupted gruffly. "We've got to get them out of here fast.
Captain Elderburg wants to blast off here day after tomorrow, and we
don't have half the ore cargo purified yet."

"And you won't have," Durval snapped. "If we blast off, we'll do it with
an empty hold. I can't purify uranium with fifty cats running loose,
getting caught in the machinery. It can't be done. Get these cats out
and I'll give you a hold full of the best grade uranium Earth ever
bought. But not till you get those cats out."

Scowling, Scott bit his knuckles. "We've got to get moving. The skipper
thinks IP Metals is going to jump our claim," he said urgently.

"If you ask me, only a doddering fool would bring these things into a
space ship." He glanced sharply at Scott. "What's this about IPM?"

Scott shook his head slowly. "Nothing. Forget I said anything. But get
these cats out. And fast. Have you tried ultra-sonics on them?"

Durval's face slipped into new lines. "Maybe," he muttered. Leaning over
the railing, he thundered, "Masters. Forget those cats a minute. Yes,
forget them. Hook up an ultra-sonics sender and--"

The ship intercom over Durval's head clicked mechanically, hummed into
life. "Mr. Jerill. Report to Central Control. Mr. Jerill. Report--"

Scott jabbed the Acknowledgement button. As he swung around Durval he
glanced down into the engine room. Sweating men beat after the scuttling
red beasts.

"Report to me about the sonics," he told Durval. "If that doesn't work,
we'll scoop up those red kitties with our bare hands. But we got to get
started on that uranium ore purification. Faster than ten minutes ago."

He slammed the engine room door, cutting off Durval's angry roar.
Striding rapidly through the bluish light of the corridor, an anger
bitter as Durval's throbbed in him. But he took pains to hold it down.

"Confound those cats," he thought. "The _Kastil_ on top of us, and we
have to stop work to chase space fa