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"Urteil!" cried Bigman at once, with a ferocity that stiffened every muscle of his small body "That dirty cobber "

"Why Urteil?" asked Lucky softly

"He warned us to watch our suits, Lucky Remember?"

"Of course And it&039;s exactly what I did"

"Sure He set it up for us We find a slashed suit and we think he&039;s a great guy Then we&039;re cold meat for him next time around Don&039;t fall for that, Lucky He&039;s a "

"Noait, Bigman, wait! Don&039;t make your mind up so fast Look at it this way Urteil said Mindes had tried to kill hiimmick Urteil&039;s suit and Urteil had spotted it in time Urteil would warn us to watch out for the same trick Maybe Mindes did this"

"Sands of Mars, Lucky, that can&039;t be This guy, Mindes, is ladled full of sleeping pills, and before that he wasn&039;t out of our sight froot onto this ht Hoe know Mindes is asleep and under an Bigman, and fell silent

"Exactly Gardoh We only knohat Dr Gardoreat friend of Mindes&039;s"

"The two of the comets-- "

"Wait, wait, don&039;t you juhten out " His tone was as disapproving as it could ever be with respect to his small friend He went on, "Now you&039;ve co on &039;s done with This is why, you blaster-happy nitwit As soon as I advance a theory, you&039;re off on a charge, all your weapons cocked and ready"

"I&039;ht Now Urteil is easy to suspect Nobody likes him Even Dr Peverale doesn&039;t You sa he reacted just to the mention of his name We&039;ve met him only once and you dislike himan

"-while I don&039;t exactly like him, either Anyone can slash this suit and hope that suspicion will fall on Urteil if it should happen to be discovered, and it would be surely discovered after it&039;s killed someone, if not before"

"I see all that, Lucky"

"On the other hand," went on Lucky set rid of me with a blaster If that were a serious atte as indirect as suit-slashing As for Dr Gardo himself in the murder of a Councilman just out of friendship for Mindes"

"Then what&039;s the decision?" cried Bigman impatiently

"There isn&039;t any so far," said Lucky, "except o to sleep" He turned down the bed sheets and stepped into the washrooed his shoulders

Scott Mindes was sitting up in bed when Lucky and Big He was pale and looked tired

"Hello," he said "Karl Gardoma told me what happened You don&039;t kno sorry I a "How do you feel?"

"Wrung out but all right, if you knohat Itonight"

"Is that wise?"

"I won&039;t leave Urteil there holding the fort," said Mindes, hatred suddenly flooding his face witheveryone I&039;m crazy Or Dr Peverale, either, for that matter"

"Dr Peverale doubts your sanity?" asked Lucky softly

"Well Look, Starr, I&039;ve been scouting the Sunside in a s bad I had to do it It&039;s "

Mindes paused and Lucky prodded Mm "Seen what, Dr Mindes?"

"I wish I could say for sure I saw it only fro that looked hu in a space-suit Not one of our inso-suits, our special insulated jobs, you know It looked more like an ordinary space-suit Ordinary et closer?"

"Yes, and I lost it And the photographs showed nothing either Just spots of light and dark that , all right Soh it didn&039;t care a thing for the heat and radiation It would even stand still in the Sun for otstill, I hed shortly "On the Mercury Sun-side? It sure is Nobody stands still Insulated suit and all, you go about your business as fast as you can and get out from under as fast as you can This near the Terminator the heat isn&039;t so bad It&039;s the radiation, though It&039;s just good practice to take as little of it as possible The inso-suits aren&039;t coamma rays If you must stand still, you move into the shade of a rock"

"What&039;s your explanation of it all?"

Mindes&039;s voice fell to an almost shamed whisper "I don&039;t think it&039;s ato say it&039;s a two-legged ghost, are you?" said Bige him into silence

But Mindes only shook his head "Did I use that phrase on the surface? I seem to remember-- No, I think it&039;s a Mercurian"

"What?" cried Bight that orse

"How else could it endure the Sun&039;s radiation and heat so?"

"Why would it need a space-suit then?" asked Lucky

"Well, I don&039;t know" Mindes&039;s eyes flashed, and a restless wildness settled upon theot back to the Dome, every man and every suit could be accounted for each time Dr Peverale won&039;t authorize an expedition to make a real search He says we&039;re not equipped for it"

"Have you told him what you told me?"

"He thinks I&039; reflections and building ination But that&039;s not so, Starr!"

Lucky said, "Have you contacted the Council of Science?"

"How can I? Dr Peverale wouldn&039;t back me Urteil would say I was mad and they would listen to him Who would listen to me?"

"I would," said Lucky