h, I
don't know!"

Muller shook his head in heavy agreement. "Naturally. We had a lot of
work to do here. After word got around about Hendrix, we didn't try to
conceal much. It might have happened when someone else was watching,
too. The important thing, gentlemen, is that now we don't have reserve
enough to carry us to Saturn. The plants remaining can't handle the
air for all of us. And while we ship some reserve oxygen...."

He let it die in a distasteful shrug. "At least this settles one
thing. We have no choice now but to return to Earth!"

"Captain Muller," Pietro bristled quickly, "that's getting to be a
monomania with you. I agree we are in grave danger. I don't relish the
prospect of dying any more than you do--perhaps less, in view of
certain peculiarities! But it's now further back to Earth than it is
to Saturn. And before we can reach either, we'll have new plants--or
we'll be dead!"

"Some of us will be dead, Dr. Pietro," Wilcox amended it. "There are
enough plants left to keep some of us breathing indefinitely."

Pietro nodded. "And I suppose, in our captain's mind, that means the
personnel of the ship can survive. Captain Muller, I must regard your
constant attempt to return to Earth as highly suspicious in view of
this recurrent sabotage of the expedition. Someone here is apparently
either a complete madman or so determined to get back that he'll
resort to anything to accomplish his end. And you have been harping on
returning over and over again!"

Muller bristled, and big heavy fist tightened. Then he drew himself up
to his full dumpy height. "Dr. Pietro," he said stiffly, "I am as
responsible to my duties as any man here--and my duties involve
protecting the life of every man and woman on board; if you wish to
return, I shall be _most_ happy to submit this to a formal board of
inquiry. I--"

"Just a minute," I told them. "You two are forgetting that we've got a
problem here. Damn it, I'm sick of this fighting among ourselves.
We're a bunch of men in a jam, not two camps at war now. I can't see
any reason why Captain Muller would want to return that badly."

Muller nodded slightly. "Thank you, Mr. Tremaine. However, for the
record, and to save you trouble investigating there is a good reason.
My company is now building a super-liner; if I were to return within
the next six months, they'd promote me to captain of that ship--a
considerable promotion, too."

For a moment, his honesty seemed to s