ble was detached from the
freshly-placed anchor, and while the air was being let back into the
control chamber, and while St. Simon divested himself of his suit.
Actually, although he would like to go to Vesta, it was out of the
question. Energywise and timewise, Pallas was much closer.

He settled back in the bucket seat and shot toward Pallas.

* * * * *

Mr. Edway Tarnhorst was from San Pedro, Greater Los Angeles, California,
Earth. He was a businessman of executive rank, and was fairly rich. In
his left lapel was the Magistral Knight's Cross of the Sovereign
Hierosolymitan Order of Malta, reproduced in miniature. In his wallet
was a card identifying him as a Representative of the Constituency of
Southern California to the Supreme Congress of the People of the United
Nations of Earth. He was just past his fifty-third birthday, and his
lean, ascetic face and graying hair gave him a look of saintly wisdom.
Aside from the eight-pointed cross in his lapel, the only ornamentation
or jewelry he wore consisted of a small, exquisitely thin gold watch on
his left wrist, and, on the ring finger of his left hand, a gold signet
ring set with a single, flat, unfaceted diamond which was delicately
engraved with the Tarnhorst coat of arms. His clothing was quietly but
impressively expensive, and under Earth gravity would probably have
draped impeccably, but it tended to fluff oddly away from his body under
a gee-pull only a twentieth of Earth's.

He sat in his chair with both feet planted firmly on the metal floor,
and his hands gripping the armrests as though he were afraid he might
float off toward the ceiling if he let go. But only his body betrayed
his unease; his face was impassive and calm.

The man sitting next to him looked a great deal more comfortable. This
was Mr. Peter Danley, who was twenty years younger than Mr. Tarnhorst
and looked it. Instead of the Earth-cut clothing that the older man was
wearing, he was wearing the close-fitting tights that were the common
dress of the Belt cities. His hair was cropped close, and the fine blond
strands made a sort of golden halo about his head when the light from
the panels overhead shone on them. His eyes were pale blue, and the
lashes and eyebrows were so light as to be almost invisible. That
effect, combined with his thin-lined, almost lipless mouth, gave his
face a rather expressionless expression. He carried himself like a man
who was used