"Now then, Meehan," he said to the man at the opposite end of the table. "Would you mind moving over to your left, so that the end of the table is clear?" "Oh?" said Meehan. "Yes, of course." He grinned at the others, and there was a ripple of amusement as Meehan slid his chair to the left. "Yes," said Heidel. "All pretty foolish-looking, perhaps. But it won't be in a few minutes when I discover the bastard of a Martian who's in this group, I'll tell you that!" His voice rose and rang in the room, and he brought the glistening pistol down with a crack against the table. * * * * * There was dead silence and Heidel found his smile again. "All right, now I'll explain a bit further. Before Dr. Kingly, the head of our laboratory, died a few days ago, he made a very peculiar discovery. As you know, there has been no evidence to indicate that the Martian is any different, physically, from the Earthman. Not until Dr. Kingly made his discovery, that is." Heidel looked from face to face. "This is how it happened," he went on. "Dr. Kingly ..." He paused and glanced about in false surprise. "I beg your pardon, gentlemen. We might as well be enjoying our wine. Excellent port. Very old, I believe. Shall we?" he asked, raising his glass. Five other glasses shimmered in the candlelight. "Let us, ah, toast success to the unveiling of the rotten Martian who sits among us, shall we?" Heidel's smile glinted and he drank a quarter of his glass. The five glasses tipped and were returned to the table. Again there was silence as the men waited. "To get back," Heidel said, listening with excitement to his own voice. "Dr. Kingly, in the process of an autopsy on a derelict Martian, made a rather startling discovery ..." "I beg your pardon," Forbes said. "Did you say autopsy?" "Yes," said Heidel. "We've done this frequently. Not according to base orders, you understand." He winked. "But a little infraction now and then is necessary." "I see," said Forbes. "I just didn't know about that." "No, you didn't, did you?" said Heidel, looking at Forbes closely. "At any rate, Dr. Kingly had developed in his work a preserving solution which he used in such instances, thereby prolonging the time for examination of the cadaver, without experiencing deterioration of the tissues. This solution was merely injected into the blood stream, and ..." "Sorry again, sir," Forbes said. "But you said blood stream?" "Yes," Heidel nodded. "This had to be done before the cadaver was a cadaver, you see?" "I think so, yes," said Forbes, leaning back again. "Murdered the bastard for an autopsy, what?" Heidel's fingers closed around the pistol. "I don't like that, Forbes." "Terribly sorry, sir."