"Ship?" I asked. The innocent line. "We don't have a ship." He looked toward the rest of his gang. Two of them came up alongside of me and grabbed my elbows. "Do you hear that?" he complained. "They don't have any ship. They walked all the way out here." He moved in close to me. His face wasn't really rock or I could have seen the moss on it. "Look, chum," he said. "Do you have to get wise? This ain't no game of marbles. I'm telling you." "Take it or leave it," I cracked. "What would we want with a ship? They bring us out here and leave us, and a year later they come back to get us and drop off the new crew." It sounded like a good way to run an asteroid station at that. He cursed. It had a horrible sound, in that muted rocky voice of his. He faced Betty again. "That true?" "Of course it's true!" The contempt in her voice would have withered him, only stones don't wither. I still couldn't see where we were getting. Hold him here until the Patrol cruiser came in? That wouldn't work. If the Patrol boat came in first they would think the Astra was the expedition ship, and Ed Day would think it was the Patrol. And Stoneface here would sit back just like a hunter in a duck blind and wait for an easy shot. If we could figure out some way to signal. Come on, Denby, think it out. There's an answer to everything. He was talking again. "How long have you been here?" "Six months." "When's that ship due?" "In six months more." "How long?" This was to Betty. "Five months and twenty-three days, to be exact," she told him. "Earth time." He cursed again. I was sweating. The way Betty was following my lead, she must think I had a plan. Maybe I did, at that. It was pretty hazy, but the way Stony kept worrying about a ship made me think. That, and the wobbly jet I had seen. "Six months, huh?" he mused. "Well, we can wait. It won't be bad. Not with the company we'll have." He put one of his big shovel-shaped hands on Betty. "No, not bad at all." I jerked one elbow loose and swung at his jaw. I might have done better if it hadn't been for the ribs, but as it was I felt it all the way up to my shoulder. His head snapped back but his feet never moved. The two gunsels grabbed my hands and twisted them up under my shoulder blades. * * * * * Old Stony stood for a minute rubbing his jaw and looking at me. Just looking. It was a look like you might see in the eye of a snake. Then he hit me in the cheek with the flat of his hand. It wasn't a slap. I tasted blood. He swung his foot at my ankles, and I hit the floor. He swung it again. I felt another rib let go. "Pick him up," he said. "Tie him in that chair." His boys did as they were told. He came and stood in front of me. "I told you this wasn't no game of marbles. Now look, chum. You're going to be a good boy and keep your trap shut and do like I tell you or I'm going to take you apart. That's going to be fun, too, only not for you." I didn't say anything.