"No noise, please," Dowland said softly. "I'd sooner not kill you. I might have to." Paul Trelawney was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was raw with shock. "Who the devil are you?" "Solar Police Authority," Dowland said. "You know why I'm here." Trelawney grunted. Dowland went on, "Why are you hiding out?" "Why do you think?" Trelawney asked irritably. "Before showing myself, I was trying to determine the whereabouts of the man who fired a rifle within half a mile of me during the night." So they had been stalking each other. Dowland said, "Why couldn't that person have been your brother or niece?" "Because I know the sound of our rifles." "My mistake.... Do you have a gun or other weapon on you?" "A knife." "Let's have it." Trelawney reached under his chest, brought out a sheathed knife and handed it back to Dowland. Dowland lobbed it into the bushes a few yards away, moved back a little. "Get up on your hands and knees now," he said, "and we'll make sure that's all." He was careful about the search. Trelawney appeared passive enough at the moment, but he was not a man too take chances with. The AR suit turned out to be concealing a tailored-in two-way communicator along with as many testing and checking devices as an asteroid miner's outfit, but no weapons. In a sealed pocket, obviously designed for it, was a five-inch atomic key. Dowland slid the heavy disk out with fingers that suddenly were shaking a little. "Does this open your laboratory here?" "Yes." Dowland detached the communicator's transmission unit, and dropped it with the laboratory key into his pocket. "All right," he said, "turn around and sit down." He waited until Trelawney was facing him, then went on. "How long have you been watching the ranch?" "About an hour." "Seen anyone--or anything?" Trelawney regarded him quizzically, shook his head. "Not a thing." "I won't waste time with too many questions just now," Dowland said. "The laboratory is locked, and the machine you started in there apparently is still in operation. Your brother was found outside the laboratory yesterday morning, and may be dead or dying of internal radiation burns. He was alive and didn't seem to be doing too badly when I left him and Miss Trelawney in the house last night to go looking for you. I had to drug Miss Trelawney--she isn't a very cooperative person. She should still be asleep. "Now, if I hadn't showed up here just now, what did you intend to do?" "I intended to stop the machine, of course," Trelawney said. His expression hadn't changed while Dowland was talking. "Preferably without involving the Solar Police Authority in our activities. But since you've now involved yourself, I urgently suggest that we go to the laboratory immediately and take care of the matter together." * * * * *