"We've got time now," Tom answered easily. "Not likely they can find us out here, away from the regular lanes." "Not unless we run across a prowl ship," Louie said. "You know there's some smuggling, and now and then a shipping company thinks it can beat the rap, not pay the toll, by doing the same thing we're doing. The prowl patrol is on to all the tricks. We're not the first ones to try it." "Just keep figuring, Louie," Tom said. "All right, all right!" Louie quarreled back. Tom looked at Cal and grimaced. "Louie's all right," he said. "Just has to complain." "I'm sure of it," Cal answered with a grin. It took closer to two hours. They had no way of knowing how many times the space police had made a fix on their position only too late to catch them hovering there. There must have been some fix made and a pretty careful calculation of where they could go next, for as they neared the outer moons of Jupiter the radio crackled into life again. "This is your last warning. We intend to board you and take over. We will disintegrate your ship if you resist." Cal took the microphone in his own hand to answer. "We intend to keep going," he said. "This is a jurisdictional dispute between the attorney general's office and E.H.Q. We will not allow you to board us, and I suggest you get confirmation of orders to disintegrate us directly from the attorney general in person. Meanwhile you can pass the buck to your Saturn patrol if those orders are confirmed." Tom nodded to Frank, and the next jump key was pressed. In the Saturn field, still another voice came through. "Orders from the attorney general himself are to allow you to proceed. Say, Lynwood, what is this all about?" "Some sort of petty squabble over who gives orders to who," Lynwood answered. "I just work here," he added tiredly. "Well," said the voice. "So do I. Guess they'll fight it out in the courts now. You understand, we had our orders." "You understand, so did I." Tom answered. "Sure," the voice answered, and cut out. Cal wondered whether the orders to disintegrate had been a bluff. Would the attorney general have dared disintegrate a ship with even a Junior E on board? Maybe it had been just a threat of the local police, one they didn't expect to have called. Or maybe he had played directly into the attorney general's hands by defying him, and getting that defiance on record was what the man had wanted. Whatever it was, the Eden matter had become bigger than merely finding out what had happened to some colonists. Whatever it was, he'd better find a successful solution, because the attorney general was counting on him to fail. And if he did fail, certainly the position of the Junior E would be altered, and possibly a deep thrust into the very heart of the Senior E position, as well. 10 Louie was right. After they cleared the solar system there was no trouble getting _to_ Eden. And there was no trouble circumnavigating the globe while still in space.