s, the two climbed down the
ladder that led into the middle part of the living space. They looked
into Haines's quarters but he wasn't there. So they went down the next
hatchway into the lower section.

Haines and Ferrati were sitting at a table in the cooking quarters,
drinking coffee. The two men, both heavy and muscular, used to the open
spaces and the feel of the winds, were taking the enforced confinement
in the cramped and artificially oxygenated space of the ship with ill
ease. For them, it was like a stretch in jail.

They greeted the two younger men jovially and invited them to a seat.
While Russ poured a cup of coffee for himself, Burl opened the subject
of how much the expedition had worked out about the enemy.

Haines's pale blue eyes gleamed. "You can know an awful lot about an
enemy if you know what he didn't do as well as what he did do. If you
figure out what you yourself should have done under the same
circumstances, and know he didn't do, why, that gives you some valuable
hints as to his deficiencies. As we see it, we've got a fighting chance
of spoiling his game. Certainly of spoiling it long enough to allow
Earth several more years to get a fleet of ships like this into
operation and give him plenty of trouble."

Suddenly Burl felt more cheerful. At the back of his mind there had been
a carefully concealed point of cold terror--he remembered the clean
efficiency of the Sun-tap station, the evidence of a science far beyond
that of Earth. He pressed the point. "Just what do we really know?"

Haines leaned back and rubbed his hands together. "There were several
things that gave their weaknesses away. When we put it all together, we
decided that the enemy represents some sort of limited advanced force or
scouting group of a civilization still too far away to count in the
immediate future. We decided that the enemy isn't too aware of our
present abilities--that his intelligence service is poor as far as
modern Earth is concerned. We figure he won't be able to act with any
speed to repair the damages we make."

"Tell them how we worked that out," said Ferrati, who had begun to grow
again the short black beard that Burl remembered he had worn on his
famous expeditions.

"Well," said Haines, drawing the word out to build up suspense, "did you
know that the station in the Andes, the one you cracked open, was built
at least thirty years ago? And never put into operation in all that
time?"

Burl was s