ars from now, when the breakthrough to the stars comes and Earthmen
discover that if they want to leave Earth they have to pay toll...."

"They could never do that!" Greg protested.

"They're doing it, son. And they're winning. We have been searching
desperately for a way to fight back, and that was where your father came
in. He could see the handwriting, he knew what was happening. That was
why he broke with the company and tried to organize a competing force
before it was too late. And it was why he died in the Belt. He knew I
couldn't send an agent out there without unquestionable evidence of
major crime of some sort or another. But a private citizen could go out
there, and if he happened to be working with the U.N. hand in glove,
nobody could do anything about it."

"Then Dad was a U.N. agent?"

"Oh, not officially. There's not a word in the records. If I were forced
to testify under oath, I would have to deny any connection. But
unofficially, he went out there to lay a trap."

The Major told them then. It had been an incredible risk that Roger
Hunter had taken, but the decision had been his. The plan was simple: to
involve Jupiter Equilateral in a case of claim-jumping and piracy that
would hold up in court, pressed by a man who would not be intimidated
and could not be bought out. Roger Hunter had made a trip to the Belt
and come back with stories ... very carefully planted in just the right
ears ... of a fabulous strike. He knew that Jupiter Equilateral had
jumped a hundred rich claims in the past, forcing the independent miners
to agree, frightening them into silence or disposing of them with
"accidents."

But this was one claim they were not going to jump. The U.N. cooperated,
helping him spread the story of his Big Strike until they were certain
that Jupiter Equilateral would go for the bait. Then Roger Hunter had
returned to the Belt, with a U.N. Patrol ship close by in case he needed
help.

"We thought it would be enough," the Major said unhappily. "We were
wrong, of course. At first nothing happened ... not a sign of a company
ship, nothing. Your father contacted me finally. He was ready to give
up. Somehow they must have learned that it was a trap. But they had just
been careful, was all. They waited until our guard was down, and then
moved in fast and hit hard."

He sank down in his seat behind the desk, regarding the Hunter twins
sadly. "You know the rest. Perhaps you can see now why I tried to