.
Lights from the rocketport glittered in its robot eyes.

* * * * *

Jadiver paced about the ship. It was not enough to be on it, for the
police could still trace him. And if they did, they could get him off.
It was not only himself, there was his unknown friend. They had ways to
learn about that.

He passed a vision port on his way through the ship. It was night, but
it didn't seem so on the vast, brightly lighted concrete plain. A
strange vehicle streaked across the surface of the rocketport in
defiance of all regulations and common sense.

It was coming his way. It dodged in and out of rockets landing and
taking off, escaping blazing destruction with last minute, intricate
maneuvers. The driver had complete control of the vehicle and was
fantastically skillful.

It was a strange machine. Jadiver had never seen anything quite like it.
As far as he knew, it resembled nothing the police used.

It didn't halt outside the ship. The loading ramp was down and the
machine came up without hesitation. The entrance was too narrow and the
vehicle would never get through--that seemed evident. An instant later,
he was not so sure. The ship quivered and groaned and vibrations ran
throughout the structure.

He leaned over the railing and looked down. The machine was inside,
dented and scraped.

"Captain," bellowed a voice from the vehicle. It was an authoritative
voice and it puzzled Jadiver.

The captain came running, either in response to the command or to find
out how much damage had been done in the crash and why.

"Take off, Captain," said the voice. "Take off at once."

The captain sputtered. "I give orders here. I'll take off when I get
ready."

"You're ready when the ship reaches a certain mass. As soon as I came on
board, you attained it. Check your mass gauges, Captain."

The captain hurried to the gauges and glanced at them. He stared back at
the machine.

"Captain," purred the machine, "you have a little daughter. By the time
you get back, she will be grown and will have children of her own. The
sooner you leave, the sooner you will see her again. I will regard it as
a personal favor if you see that we take off immediately."

The captain looked at the machine. Tentacles and eye stalks rose up out
of the tip as he watched. It was a big machine, well put together, and
it appeared quite capable of handling a roomful of armed men. As a
matter of fact, it just had.

The ca