And then, suddenly, he knew the answer. He stared at the Map, his heart pounding in his throat. He cut the magnification, scanning a wide area. Then he widened the lens still further, and checked the coordinates at the bottom of the viewer. He knew that he was right. He _had_ to be right. But this was no wild dream, this was something that could be proved beyond any question of error. Across the room he picked up the phone to Map Control. It buzzed interminably; then a sleepy voice answered. "The Map," Tom managed to say. "It's recorded on time-lapse film, isn't it?" "'Course it is," the sleepy voice said. "Observatory has to have the record. One frame every hour...." "I've got to see some of the old film," Tom said. "_Now?_ It's three in the morning." "I don't need the film itself, just project it for me. There's a reader here." He gave the man the dates he wanted, Mars time. The man broke the contact, grumbling, but moments later one of the film-viewers sprang to life. The Map coordinates showed at the bottom of the screen. Tom stared at the filmed image ... the image of a segment of the Asteroid Belt the day before Roger Hunter had died. It was there. When he had looked at the Map, he had seen a single red pinpoint of light, Roger Hunter's asteroid, with nothing in the heavens anywhere near it. But on the film image taken weeks before there were two points of light. One was red, with Roger Hunter's claim number beneath it. The other was white, so close to the first that even at full magnification it was barely distinguishable. _But it was there._ Tom's hands were trembling with excitement; he nearly dropped the phone receiver as he punched the buttons to ring the apartment. Greg's face appeared on the screen, puffy with sleep. "What's that? Thought you were in bed...." "You've got to get down here," Tom said. Greg blinked, waking up. "What's the matter? Where are you?" "In the Map Room. Wake Johnny up and get down here. And try to get hold of the Major." "You've found something," Greg said, excited now. "I've found something," Tom said. "I've found where Dad hid his strike ... and I know how we can find it! We've got the answer, Greg." 14. The Missing Asteroid It had been a wild twelve hours since Tom Hunter's call to his brother from the Map Room in Sun Lake City. The Major had arrived first, still buttoning his shirt and wiping sleep from his eyes. Johnny and Greg came in on his heels. They had found Tom waiting for them, so excited he could hardly keep his words straight. He told them what he had found, and they wondered why they had not thought of it from the first moment. "We knew there had to be an answer," Tom said, "some place Dad could have used for a hiding place, some place nobody would even think to look. Dad must have realized that he didn't have much time. When he saw his chance, he took it."