On Venus there was no hitch. Garcia and Birkerod went to the Liaison Office in Kreingrad, as planned, and were provided with the _Tang Chuh-Chih_, with a load of supplies--and with Nick Pappas, a former Callistan who wanted to return there. They followed the Liaison Office's suggestion and took Pappas aboard. * * * * * "We're all Callistans now," Birkerod repeated. "I wonder, Nick. How did you happen to leave Callisto in the first place? Just felt like visiting good old Saskatchewan? I doubt it. Let's see--you left before that business started with the Beldens, didn't you?" Pappas licked his lips nervously. Garcia answered for him: "Yes, about ten months before, according to what they told us on Venus." "Yeah," Birkerod mused. "You know the Beldens, of course." "Yes," said Pappas, "of course. I came to Earth on their freighter." "Not _their_ freighter," Garcia put in. "Callisto's freighter, which they were operating. It's only more recently that it's become _their_ freighter." Birkerod smiled and went on, "It's interesting, Mr. Pappas, that you left Callisto about the time the Beldens' plans must have been taking shape. I wonder why you did?" Pappas ignored the question. A moment before, the red signal light had flashed on above the calculator set in the opposite bulkhead. The computations had been finished on Garcia and Birkerod's "little conjecture." Garcia, who was closest to the machine, filled in the silence. "Let's find out what the calculator has to say. It may clear things up a little." There was a row of spring-clamps set in the bulkhead next to him for holding objects stationary while the ship was in free fall. Garcia put his gun in one of these, slipped out of the "safety belt" that had held him in the pilot's seat in spite of the lack of gravity, and turned to the calculator. Pappas sprang. Not toward Garcia--but toward the side of the cabin that would have been the ceiling if there had been an "up." He snatched his gun from his jacket. Something crashed into Pappas, spun him around. Birkerod had jumped too, hitting him hard in midair. * * * * * The cabin whirled about them. He felt Birkerod's powerful grip around the hand which held the gun. Simultaneously they reached the ceiling; Pappas's head hit metal with a crack. The gun fell free. Weightless, the two of them wrestled desperately. [Illustration: The cabin whirled around them ... the gun fell free....] Suddenly Birkerod pulled loose and jumped away. Pappas found himself alone in the middle of the cabin, drifting slowly from the pilot's seat. In the pilot's seat Garcia was again sitting calmly, his gun leveled. Birkerod had the other gun. There was silence while Pappas reached the bulkhead, pushed back to his seat, and belted himself in.