"Well, if that ain't something," said Boyd. "I tell you them quartermasters ought to be horsewhipped and that's a fact. Well, well. No cigarettes. You sure you checked the inventory, general?"

"The title of address is 'Ruler!' And I'll have no questioning of our actions. You brought no cigarettes and there's not a single pack on the Moon."

"Well, if it's okay with you," said Whittaker, "we'll just trot down and fetch you up a couple cartons."

"That's impertinence! Lieutenant, have you no control over your men? Are you certain we have emptied all storage compartments of your ship?"

"Well, can't say. Back in the tube room we had a little layout for the return trip but you wouldn't want to take that away."

"Aha!" said Slavinsky, jumping up to his full five feet.

He pushed down a communicator button and rattled orders into it.

Just as he finished a small bespectacled man entered timidly, his hands full of reports. "Ruler, I have just checked the supplies and I find them safe. I began when the first case entered and have just finished. The food is not poisoned."

"So!" said Slavinsky to Boyd. "You knew better than to trip us up, did you. Ha!"

"I got to send my report to the President," said Boyd.

"I am afraid," said Slavinsky, "that I shall have to attend to that. Now, to business. You will be separated from your men, of course. And then men we need in our labor gangs. We have all too few men, you see.

"But you, as an officer, according to the usages of war, need not work outside but may have some light job. The meteors have been bad lately and we have lost several people. Guard, take this officer to a cell and put the men to work on the missile emplacements instantly."

"With a guard, Ruler?"

"No, blockhead. Where would they go? Ha, ha. Yes, indeed. Where would they go?"

Angel had been half through the act of unscrewing his helmet. Now he hastily replaced it. He and Whittaker were thrust outside and in a moment found themselves in the hands of a non-com who was organizing a work party.

A radio technician came up and adjusted their radios to proper 

 Prev. P 18/27 next