Later, when they were alone in their quarters again, Greg and Johnny stared at each other gloomily. "Didn't you see _anything_ that might help us?" Greg said. "Not much. For an orbit-ship, this place is a fortress. I got a good look at that scout ship coming in ... it was armed to the teeth. Probably they all are. And they're keeping a guard now at every airlock." "So we're sewed up tight," Greg said. "Looks that way. They've got us, boy, and I think Tawney's patience is wearing thin, too. We're either going to have to produce or else." "But what can we do?" "Start bluffing." "It seems to me we're just about bluffed out." "I mean talk business," Johnny said. "Tell Tawney what he wants to know." "When we don't know any more than he does? How?" Johnny Coombs scratched his jaw. "I've been thinking about that," he said slowly, "and I wonder if we don't know a whole lot more than we think we do." "Like what?" Greg said. "We've all been looking for the same thing ... a Big Strike, a bonanza lode. Tawney's men have raked over every one of your Dad's claims, and they haven't turned up a thing." Johnny looked at Greg. "Makes you wonder a little, doesn't it? Your Dad was smart, but he was no magician. And how does a man go about hiding something like a vein of ore?" "I don't know," Greg said. "It doesn't seem possible." "It isn't possible," Johnny said flatly. "There's only one possible explanation, and we've been missing it all along. Whatever he found, _it wasn't an ore strike_. It was something else, something far different from anything we've been thinking of." Greg stared at him. "But if it wasn't an ore strike, what was it?" "I don't know," Johnny said. "But I'm sure of one thing ... it was something important enough that he was ready to die before he'd reveal it. And that means it was important enough that Tawney won't dare kill us until he finds out what it was." 9. The Invisible Man Crouching back into the shadow, Tom Hunter waited as the heavy footsteps moved up the corridor, then back down, then up and down again. He peered around the corner for a moment, looking quickly up and down the curving corridor. The guard was twenty yards away, moving toward him in a slow measured pace. Tom jerked his head back, then peered out again as the footsteps receded. The guard was a big man, with a heavy-duty stunner resting in the crook of his elbow. He paused, scratched himself, and resumed his pacing. Tom waited, hoping that something might distract the big man, but he moved stolidly back and forth, not too alert, but far too alert to risk breaking out into the main corridor. Tom moved back into the darkened corridor where he was standing, trying to decide what to do. It was a side corridor, and a blind alley; it ended in a large hatchway marked HYDROPONICS, and there were no branching corridors. If he were discovered here, there would be no place to hide. But he knew that he could never hope to accomplish his purpose here....