"I thought so!" blazed Loesser, his eyes raging. "I told Jonny that was why you came here!"

He snatched an object from his jacket pocket. To Carlin's thunderstruck amazement, the object was a stubby atom-pistol that Loesser was furiously leveling at him.

CHAPTER IV

Mystery Machine

Laird Carlin was child of a galactic civilization in which violence between men was rare. There was plenty of danger yet, in pioneering new star-worlds, but over the civilized worlds themselves the unchallenged law of the Control Council maintained unbroken order. A man could go a lifetime without ever seeing violence.

The atom-pistol in Loesser's hand and the obvious murderous intention in the man's face stupefied Carlin. He was simply unable to adjust his thinking to the possibility that the enraged Earthman before him meant to blast him down.

"Why, what's the matter?" he began, puzzled and stunned.

He knew later how near he had been to death. At the moment, he so little recognized it that he felt no relief at the interruption that came now. Harb and Jonny Land came running forward from the cavernous interior of the workshop.

"Loesser, put that gun down!" snapped Jonny.

Loesser turned violently. "This fellow was spying on us! I saw him at the door!"

Harb Land's craggy face darkened ominously.

"I warned you what might happen," he said harshly to his brother.

"Is this man crazy?" Laird Carlin demanded bewilderedly of Jonny.

The lame youngster limped quickly forward. "Get back to work," he told the other two briefly. "Carlin, I'm sorry about this. I'll explain."

He walked beside Carlin toward the house. It was not until later that Carlin realized how deftly and unobtrusively he had been steered away from the workshop.

"Harb and Loesser and I, and a few others, are planning an expedition to Mercury to prospect for copper," Jonny was explaining. "In that ship you saw down at the spaceport. We've devised a 

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