He stopped, clumsily. "Okay. Speech ended."

Karen drew a shivering breath and smiled at him. "And everything else
just begun, Allen," she said. He nodded, feeling too much for words.

"Get to bed with you," ordered Pappas.

* * * * *

Jessup led Lancaster off, and one by one the others drifted back to
their jobs. Finally only Karen and Berg stood by the airlock.

"You keep your beautiful mouth shut, my dear," said the man.

"Oh, sure." Karen sighed unhappily. "I wish I'd never learned your
scheme. When you explained it to me I wanted to shoot you."

"You insisted on an explanation," said Berg defensively. "When Allen was
due to go back to Earth, you wanted us to tell him who we were and keep
him. But it wouldn't have worked. I've studied his dossier, and he's not
the kind of man to switch loyalties that easily. If we were to have him
at all, it could only be with his full consent. And now we've got him."

"It was still a lousy trick," she said.

"Of course it was. But we had no choice. We _had_ to have a first-rate
physicist."

"You know," she said, "you're a rat from way back."

"That I am. And by and large, I enjoy it." Berg grimaced. "Though I must
admit this job leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I like Allen. It was the
hardest thing I ever did, tipping off the federal police about him."

He turned on his heel and walked away, smiling faintly.

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Space Science Fiction_ February 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
have been corrected without note.

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