g men will be in charge of departments!"

As Coxine read off the list of jobs and the men to handle them, there
were yells of approval and disapproval for favorites and old enemies.
When the list of names had been read, he turned away from the intercom
and faced his lieutenants, Wallace and Simms.

"Well, skipper," boasted Wallace, "it looks like we're in business
again!"

"Yeah," chimed in Simms. "In three hours we'll be on our own asteroid
and we can start planning our first strike!"

Coxine's eyes narrowed into slits. "Get this, both of you!" he snapped.
"What I said to those crawlers down below goes for you too. I'm the boss
of this outfit and you don't even guess about what we're going to do,
until I say so!"

"But, Bull--!" whined Wallace.

"Shut up!" roared Coxine. "And when you talk to me, you call me
captain!"

Wallace and Simms looked at each other. "O.K., Captain," muttered Simms.

"Yes, _sir_!" corrected Coxine.

"Yes, sir," said Simms quickly.

"That's better," growled the giant spaceman. "Don't get the idea that
just because you were able to follow orders that it makes you smart.
Because it doesn't! It took me two and a half years to get the
information collected onto these story spools and smuggle them out to
you. Everything, from where to buy this spaceship to getting the
light-key out of the time capsule, was my idea! My brains!"

"Sure, Captain," said Wallace, "but we took the chances!"

"Yeah," sneered Coxine. "You took chances! The only chance you took was
in not paying attention to what I told you to do. I gave it all to you.
Where to hold up the first freighter passenger, what to take, how to
mount the atomic blasters, what code to use in getting through the
prison defenses. The whole works! And I did it while sitting on the
toughest Rock in the system. I smuggled it out right under the noses of
those Solar Guard space crawlers. So forget about being smart, or you'll
wind up with that scum below decks!"

"Yes, sir!" said Wallace.

"Now get me a course to the asteroid and make it quick. And have some
decent grub sent up to my quarters right away!"

The big man turned lightly on the balls of his feet and disappeared
through the hatch. After a moment, Wallace turned to Simms.

"That big space-crawling bum!" snorted Wallace. "I oughta blast him!"

"Go ahead!" sneered Simms. "You were the one who wanted to get him off
the Rock, not me!"

"Aw shut up!" snarled Wallace. He turned to